





















































































THE HISTORY 


OF 

THE TOWN, CHURCH, AND EPISCOPAL PALACE 

OF 


BISHOP’S WALTHAM, 

FROM THE EARLIEST PERIOD TO THE PRESENT TIME ; 

IN A LECTURE, 

DELIVERED BEFORE THE LITERARY INSTITUTION 
OF THAT TOWN, 


BY 




CHARLES WALTERS, M.A. F.R.A.S. 

• *• 

OF »IAGDALi5N HALL, OXFORD, 

RECTOR OF BRAMDEAN, 

(formerly CURATE OF WALTHAM), 

AND ONE OF THE VICE-PRESIDENTS OF THE INSTITUTION. 


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BISHOP 


WINCHESTER: 

JACOB AND JOHNSON,,’ ^, 

S WALTHAM: M. ELLYETT. 




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FOR THE LITERARY INSTITUTION. 



1844. 




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TO THE 


RIGHT REV. THE LORD BISHOP OF WINCHESTER, 

PATRON ; 

THE REV. W. BROCK, M.A. 

RECTOR OF bishop’s WALTHAM, PRESIDENT ; 

THE VICE-PRESIDENTS, THE SECRETARIES, 
AND THE MEMBERS, 

OF 

THE LITERARY INSTITUTION, 

THIS LECTURE, 

PUBLISHED AT THE SPECIAL REQUEST OF THOSE WHO WERE 
PRESENT AT ITS DELIVERY, 


i- 


IS, WITH EVERY SENTIMENT OF RESPECT, 
ESTEEM, AND REGARD, 

INSCRIBED. 






f 


I 




HISTORY 


OF 

BISHOP^S WALTHAM. 


Few branches of human knowledge, perhaps, 
impart to the mind more vivid pleasure than 
antiquarian researches. How delightful, for ex¬ 
ample, it is to climb the mountain fortress, and 
within its lofty rampart to tread where, it may 
be, 2000 years ago, our British ancestors en¬ 
trenched themselves in time of danger or inva¬ 
sion; or where, 1600 years since, the Roman 
eagles glittered in the sun, and the mighty le¬ 
gions, the conquerors of the world, reposed their 
strength ! What deep and solemn' interest, 
again, is excited when we stand in silent con¬ 
templation at the foot of some high raised tumu¬ 
lus ; when the imagination pierces to its centre, 
and views the mouldering relics of some once 
mighty chieftain, wearing, even in death, his 
martial array ! How earnestly, again, do we 
gaze on the castle, time-worn and war-worn, 
against whose walls ^^the blast of the terrible 
ones^^ has often beaten, and the marks of which 

a3 



6 HISTORY OF BISHOP^S WALTHAM. 

they bear even in their ruins, frowning in de¬ 
cay ! And with' how much intenser pleasure, 
and holier feehng, do we survey more peaceful 
objects—some ruined abbey, some venerable 
parish church, with all its hallowed associations, 
where, for many an age, the generations who 
have gone before us have offered their prayers 
and thanksgivings to Him who liveth for ever; 
and where they repose, undisturbed, in the dust 
of death, awaiting the awful day of resurrection 
and of judgment. How solemn is it, amid the 
dim aisles of some stately temple of the livdng 
God, some magnificent cathedral, to mark the 
sepulchres of the illustrious dead—warriors, no¬ 
bles, priests, prelates, monarchs; to ^^meditate,^^ 
amidst these awful memorials, on our ‘^own mor¬ 
tality, and the great account which all flesh 
must give to the God of all spirits How fair 
to the eye, again, are these gorgeous piles, their 
clustered columns, their aspiring arches, their 
^^high embowed roofs,^^ where entwine, as in 
mystic dance, the mazy lines of tracery, their 
“ storied windows, shedding the dim blaze of 
radiance richlv clear and all the innumerable 
forms of beauty and objects of attraction, la¬ 
vished, in insatiable variety,” on the eye and 
on the imagination, in that loveliest and richest 
production of human genius in the department 
of the arts. Gothic architecture. 






HISTORY OF bishop’s WALTHAM. 7 

And how are these feelings heightened when 
they are exercised on places and scenes with 
which we have been, in some more especial 
manner, connected by birth, by domestic rela¬ 
tionship, or by education. How feelingly does 
the great Roman orator and philosopher ex¬ 
press his feelings on this subject:—Quis est 
nostrum liberaliter educatus, cui non educator, 
cui non magister suus atque doctor, cui non 
locus ille mutus ubi ipse altus aut doctus est, 
cum grata recordatione in mente versatur?”* 
And again—“ Me quidem ipsse illee Athense non 
tarn delectant operibus magnificis, quam recor¬ 
datione summorum viroriim, ubi quisque habi- 
tare, ubi sedere, ubi disputare, sit solitus: stu- 
*dioseque eorum etiam sepiilchra contemplor.”t 

Your lecturer sees with pleasure beside him, 
this evening, those Avho, like himself, are bound 
to Waltham by all these ties, and who can fully 
enter with him into the sentiments embodied 
by Cicero in the preceding quotations. 

* Cic. Pro Planco.—‘‘ What man of liberal education is 
there among us who does not hold in pleasing recollec¬ 
tion his bringer up, his master, and his teacher, nay 
even the very place itself where he was brought up 
or instructed.” 

f Id. De Legibus.—“ Even Athens itself does not de¬ 
light me so much by its splendid edifices and works of 
art, as by the remembrance of illustrious men, where 
each of them used to dwell, to sit, to discourse. 1 gaze 
with interest even on their sepulchres.” 




8 HISTORY OF BISHOP^S WALTHAM. 

But these endearing connexions are not neces¬ 
sary to render the investigation of the history 
of our native town a matter of interest and 
pleasure; for Waltham, notwithstanding its pre¬ 
sent unpretending appearance, is to the eye of 
the historian and the antiquary an object of no 
ordinarv attraction. Its ancient associations are 

ft/ 

with some of the greatest events in the history 
of our own country and of Europe; and with 
some of the most illustrious personages,‘both by 
station and character, that have appeared in the 
annals of England. The history of Waltham is 
that of the great, the vdse, and the good; of 
kings, potentates, prelates, the brave in fight, 
the wise in council, the patrons of learning, the 
encouragers of the arts, the benefactors of the 
human race—in the words of the great poet of 
Italy, Quique sui memores alios fecere merendo.^ 
Surely, in contemplating such a spot, and musing 
over the scenes of its departed grandeur, we 
may adopt the glowing language of a writer who 
is worthy to take his place in company with the 
most distinguished, and to enforce the senti¬ 
ments, and re-echo the ideas even of a Virgil or 
a Cicero—To abstract the mind from all local 
emotion would be impossible, if it were endea¬ 
voured ; and would be foolish if it were possible. 

* Virg. iEn. .vi. 





HISTORY OF BTSHOP^S WALTHAM. 9 

Whatever withdraws us from the power of our 
senses; whatever makes the past, the distant, or 
the future, predominate over the present, ad¬ 
vances us in the dignity of thinking beings, 
h^ar from me and from my friends be such frigid 
philosophy as may conduct us, unmoved and in¬ 
different, over any ground which has been dig¬ 
nified by wisdom, bravery, or virtue. That man 
is little to be envied whose patriotism would not 
gain force upon the plain of Marathon, or whose 
piety would not groM^ warmer among the ruins 
of lona.^^* 

In prosecuting historical and archaeological 
researches, it is often necessary to go far back 
into antiquity, even though we be reminded of 
the Welchman^s genealogy, in the middle of 
which occurred this comparatively unimportant 
marginal notification—About this time the 
world was created or be compared to the 
“ Scriptor cyclicus,^^ the roundabout verbose 
consumer of ink and perishing paper,t who be¬ 
gan his tale of Troy^^ with the birth of Helen. 
But such researches are not only useful; they 
are productive of much gratification to the mind 
which loves to reflect on past ages, and to scan 

* Johnson’s Journey to the Western Isles, Works, 
vol. viii. 395. Ed. Murphy. 

} Periturae parcere chartae. Juv. i. 37. 




10 


BRITISH PERIOD. 


and weigh the characters and tlie actions of 
men. Well says the poet— 

“ Nor rough nor barren are the winding ways 

“ Of hoar antiquity ; but strown with flowers.”* 

In pursuing the subject of my present Lec¬ 
ture, I purpose to adopt the fourfold division of 

I. The British, 

II. The Homan, 

III. The S AXON, 

IV. The Norman-English Period of the 
History of the Town, the Church, and the 
Palace. 

I. The British Period; before the exist¬ 
ence of the present town. 

When the Homans arrived in Britain, they 
found the inhabitants in a state little removed 
from barbarism, clothing themselves in the skins 
of beasts, and painting with woad those parts 
of their bodies which were left uncovered.f 
Their habitations we may suppose to have been 
suited to the occupiers. We read, indeed, of 
their roads, or trackways, vestiges of which re¬ 
main throughout the kingdom, and the courses 
and directions of which are well known to the 

*T. Warton’s Sonnet, 
t Ctcsar Bell. Gall. v. 10. 


BRITISH PERIOD. 


11 


antiquary. We read also of their towns; but 
these, at an early period of the island’s being 
peopled, were perhaps of the rudest description, 
probably mere collections of pits or subterranean 
dwellings; such as are described by various an¬ 
cient authors. For example, ^schylus, the most 
ancient Greek tragic writer, describes untaught 
uncivilized man, as using these gloomy habita¬ 
tions :— 

-“ HOure 'jrXiv^v(pe7$ 

Aofji^ovg TTpoa^aikovs -j^Vav, ov ^vXovpyiocv. 
Kocrojpvy^ec hociov, c/(rr' dy](rvpoi 
MuojooijKS^-, dvrpujv iv iJi^vy^o7g dvrjXiois * 

Xenophon likewise describes some of the na¬ 
tions through which the Ten Thousand passed 
during the memorable retreat, as living in simi¬ 
lar subterranean dwellings;— 

Aj $’ olxioci ijVav xardysioi, ro (rroy^a, aj<nt£p 
(ppsoLtog, xaruj supalar at 5’ sicrohi rolg \l£v uVo^u- 
y\fi\g opuKTOu, ol dvd^ujTTOt xara xXlihOLxag kolts^oli- 
vov.” t 


*Prom. 1.450. Ed. Schutz. 

“ The lightsome wall 
Of finer masonry, the rafter’d roof, 

They knew not; but, like ants still buried, delv’d 
Deep in the earth; and scooped their sunless caves.” 

Potter. 


fXenoph. Anab. 8vo. p. 298. Ed. Hutch. 

“ Their dwellings were under ground, having a mouth 
like that of a well; but beneath they expand in size. 



12 


BRITISH PERIOD. 


Of these wretched dwelling places there are 
not wanting vestiges yet remaining in our own 
countiy. ^^At Little Coxwell, Berks, are a num¬ 
ber of pits, or caverns, in the earth, amounting 
to 273. They are from seven to 22 feet deep, 
and some 40 feet in diameter. They are con¬ 
ceived to have been a considerable city of the • 
Britons, at a very remote period; which, on an 
average of five to each pit, would have contained 
1400 persons. Strabo says that such pits were 
used for dwelling places in .^gina; and this 
custom still prevails in Poland. Many of these 
are to be found in Malta and Minorca. Leland 
mentions some in Caermarthenshire. The in¬ 
habitants of Kamschatka still use them: they 

4 / 

cover them with planks and sods, leaving an 
opening through which they descend by a lad¬ 
der.The Britons, however, though they 
might have dwelt thus in dens and caves of the 
earth,had habitations of somewhat better kind 
and superior nature, as we learn from the de- 

Entrauces for beasts of burden were formed by digging; 
but the human inhabitants were in the habit of de¬ 
scending into them by ladders.” 

* Barrington in Archseologia. Suidas in voc. tpujy?^y). 
See also on this subject Virg. Georg, iii. 376 ; Johnson’s 
Life of Drake, Works, xii. 135 ; Buffon’s Nat. Hist. iv. 
196, English edit, by Barr; Britton’s Beauties of Wilts, i. 
30. The town of Nottingham is named from them— 
Snotenja-l^am— the town of pits. 


BRITISH PERIOD. 


13 


scription of them and their country in Diodorus. 

“ Tag svrsXsis sypvcriv, sk rouv -nciXa^wv 

^vXujv xara ro KXsKrrov H£<|U<£vaf.”* x. r. X. 

Such, then, were probably the towns of our 
British ancestors, collections of pits or rude 
huts; and these, for greater security, situated 
in the deep recesses of the vast forests with which 
the face of this country was then covered, as 
well as that of the greater part of Europe, f 
Such was the celebrated Hercynian Forest, of 
Avhich Csesar says—Latitudo IX. dierum iter 
expedite patet. Multarum gentium fines, prop¬ 
ter magnitudinem, attingit; neque quisquam 
est hujus Germanise qui se aut adisse ad ini- 
tium ejus sylvse dicat, quum dierum iter LX. 
processerit, aut quo ex locooriatur acceperit.^^J 

* Diod. Sic. iv. p. 303. Ed. Rhodomani. folio. 

“They have simple dwellings, consisting, for the most 
part, of reeds or pieces of timber.” 

t Caesar Bell. Gall. v. 17. Stow’s Survey of London, 

p. 3. 

I Caesar Bell. Gall. vi. 23. See also Pearson on the 
Creed, p. 61, note ; folio edit. 

“ Its breadth is nine days journey, even for one who 
travels lightly and expeditiously. From its vast extent 
it stretches itself to the boundaries of many nations. 
Nor is there any one in Germany who can say that he 
has reached the extremities of this forest, even though 
he has gone a journey of 60 days, neither has any one 

heard where it begins.” . y 

B 


14 


BRITISH PERIOD. 


Similai’ to this was the Andred (signifying wood 
or forest) of the Britons, latinized by the Ro¬ 
mans into Anderida. It extended 150 miles in 
length, from Sussex, through Hampshire, into 
Wiltshire, and probably Dorsetshire. At its 
eastern extremity was the Caer Andred of the 
Britons, the Anbpeb-ceafcep of the Saxons, both 
names implying the city of the wood, or 
forest.It was situated near, or on the site of, 
the modern Pevensey. The ancient city was 
stormed and destroyed by EUa, a.d. 477,* when 
the dreadful invasion of the Saxons began with 
the devastation of this part of Britain, and the 
utter destruction of Caer Andred and Silchester. 
The highly interesting ruins of the latter still 
exist, and bear traces of the catastrophe. 

Nor is this foreign to the History of Waltham, 
although relating to a period antecedent to its 
existence as a town. The forest which bears its 
name, as w ell as the contiguous one of Bere, is 
a relic of the ancient Andred; and I am assimed 
by an intelligent friend, that its course westerly 
may be traced throughout the countj^ by various 
detached masses of w^ood in that direction. The 
bleak and naked downs round Winchester were 
onee, it is said, covered w ith woods; and per- 

* Chron. Sax. ; H. Huntingdon ; Milner’s Hist. Win. 
i. 61 ; Beauties of England, Hants, p. 247. 



ROMAN PERIOD. 


15 


haps the New Forest itself may have termed a 
portion of the extensive Andred. 

II. We come next to The Roman Period of 
our history. 

I state, on the authority of the learned anti¬ 
quary Mr. Gough, that the district in which 
Waltham, or rather the site of it, was included, 
Avas inhabited by a British tribe, called by 
Cccsar Meanvari. The name certainly exists to 
the present day, being found in the appellations 
Eastmeon, Westmeon, and Meansborough: the 
latter, however, is not contiguous, but at some 
distance from the Gvo former. The terms meon, 
mean, and mene or menes, are, of course, syno- 
nimous. There are, indeed, sufficient evidences 
of the presence of the Romans at Waltham and 
in its immediate vicinity. The road, for instance, 
Avhich is known to have led from Winchester 
(Venta Belgarum) to Portchester (Portus Mag¬ 
nus) is yet to be traced. From Winchester it 
came over Morestead Hill, thence to OAvslebmy, 
near which it is visible on the down as a high 
raised terrace; through the wood called Row- 
hay, by Upham Farm, thence along a still exist¬ 
ing waggon road to Wintershill Common, thence 
going in a straight course it crossed the present 
Southampton Road about a mile south of the 
toAvn, thence across Curdridgc Lane into my 



16 


ROMAN PERIOD. 


own grounds, where it lias been repeatedly 
found on digging somewhat deeply. From this 
point it is not now to he traced, as cultivation, 
and the accumulation of vegetable soil in conse¬ 
quence, have completely buried it. We ma}", 
however, track it near Wickham, in the name 
Cold Harbour, which was formerly the name of 
IMr. Guittoids seat, now Wickham Park. This 
name, I know not why, but probably a corrup¬ 
tion of some other term, is not unfrequently 
found in the neighbourhood of Poman roads. 
There is another example in the north west of 
Hampshire. 

Other proofs of the presence of the Romans 
are furnished by their coins, found frequently 
and in considerable abundance. An urn, for 
instance, was found about forty years ago, w'ithin 
a mile south east of the town, on Mr. Jonas^s 
land, containing many coins of the later em¬ 
perors—Tacitus, Probus, &c.; and one, among 
those in my possession, of the usm’per Allectus. 

Many of Constantine^s have been discovered at 
*/ 

various times. In my own collection are those 
of Philip, (found in the town,) Domitian, Clau¬ 
dius, and, as it appears, Julius Caesar himself, 
bearing the legend (and what a legend! a speci¬ 
men of the most abject flattery, gross absurdity, 
and impious blasphemy!) divos ivlivs divi f.— 
thus deifying a profligate in private life, and a 





ROMAN' PERIOD. 


17 


murderer by wholesale of the human race in his 

«/ 

public career. The divinity Julius: the son of 
u divinitv^^—such was heathenism. 

Thus these potent subjugators and destroyers 
of mankind, whose character and conquests are 
so vividly described in the inspired word of 
prophecy, as the fourth beast,^^ or mighty 
empire, dreadful, and terrible, and strong ex¬ 
ceedingly,^^ which ^Tiad great iron teeth, and 
devoured and brake in pieces and stamped the 
residue with the feet of it,^^*—the fierce and 
haughty Komans, are shown to have trodden our 
now free and peaceful soil. Here they held 
their state, and exercised their domination, 

“ Where the high raised flinty road 
Echoed to the prancing hoof, 

And golden eagles flamed aloof; 

And, flashing to the orient light, 

The banner’d legions glitter’d bright.” ! 

But their power, never, perhaps, established 
throughout the island, was doomed to fall and 
perish. It had fulfilled the divine decrees and 
designs, and was now to give way, in Britain and 
elsewhere, to other “thrones and dominions, prin- 

\ 

* Daniel, chap. vii. 

t See some beautiful verses by Mr. Bowles, on the 
opening of a barrow on Salisbury Plain, during which a 
violent thunder storm came on .—British Critic, vol. xlii. 
or Bir R, Hoare's Ant. Wilts. 

B 3 


18 


SAXON PERIOD. 


cipalities and powers.” The Roman power be¬ 
came finally extinct about a.d. 407-9.* Without 
entering on particulars foreign to our present 
subject, w^e proceed to trace, 

III. The Saxon Period of Waltham^s his¬ 
tory. 

I have already alluded to the invasion of the 
Saxons in the fifth centurv. These were re- 
peated from time to time; till, at length, tlie 
whole of England was bowed under their yoke; 
and their power was completely established in 
the Heptarchy, or rather Octarchy, (for strictly 
speaking there were eight kingdoms,) of the 
Saxon dvnastv. Under the Saxons, and before 
the Norman conquest, the town was founded. 
Its name shews this, as it is pure Saxon, pealb- 
J^am; i. e. wood town or habitation: from its 
latter part is derived our word ^^home,” in the 
more Saxon language of the Lowlands of Scot¬ 
land ‘^^hame.” The former word, weald,” {i. e. 
forest or wood,) is still partially used in the form 
^^wold,” to signify a woody district. From the 
great similarity of the Anglo-Saxon letters b 
and ‘h, the latter being equivalent to th, they 
were sometimes used indiscriminatelv, or rather 
confounded with each other; and hence, we may 


* Turner’s History of the Anglo-Saxons, vol. i. 124. 


SAXON PERIOD. 


19 


suppose, the name of the town to have beconui 
l^ealS-J^am, Wealth-ham or Waltham. To dis¬ 
tinguish it, however, from other towns of the 
same name, it had the additional appellation 
‘^South^^ prefixed to it. In the time of Wyke- 
ham and Waynflete, and perhaps long after, it 
'was thus called.* It is, however, styled ^‘Walt¬ 
ham Episcopi Wintoniensis,^^ or the Bishop of 
Winchester's Waltham, by Diceto, one of oin 
old English historians, who was dean of St. Pauhs 
A.D. 1181. It was probably so called because 
the manor then, as now, belonged to the see of 
Winchester, as the following extract from the 
celebrated Dom-boc, or Domesday-book, clearly 
shows :—Ipse episcopus tenet Waltham in 
dominio. Semper euit de Episcopate. Ba- 
dulphas, presbyter, tenet duas secclesias hujus 
manerii. De terra harum aicclesiarum tenet 
unus homo I liidam de terra villanorum. Ibi ha- 
bet I \dllanum et 3 bordarios,cum 9 bobus. Valet 
30 solidos.^^ The bishop holds Waltham in 
demesne. It always belonged to the bishopric. 
Radulph, the priest, holds two churches of this 
manor. Of the land belonging to these churches 
one man holds one hide of land, occupied by the 

* Wykeham’s will, dated “apiid South Waltham,”, 
and various acts and documents, both by him and 
Waynflete. Lives by Lowth and Chandler, and White’s 
History of Selborne. 


20 


SAXON PERIOD. 


villagers_, and here he has a villager and three 
borderers with nine men. It is worth 30 shil¬ 
lings.^^* That it was a manor of considerable 
importance appears from its giving its name to 
one of those hundreds into which the kingdom 
was divided^ for the better administration of jus¬ 
tice, by the illustrious Alfred.t 

In 1001 an army of Danes, returning from 
Normandy, besieged Exeter. Being repulsed 
in their attempts, they retreated, carrying de¬ 
struction and devastation with them to the Isle 
of Wight; and proceeding thence, disembarked 
on the main land, and biu’nt Waltham and vari¬ 
ous other towns on the coast. J 

The mention of these circumstances, especi- 
allv of the extent and valuation of the Manor of 
Waltham, with its two churches and its priest, 
in Domesday-book, brings us to the— 

IV. or Norman and English Period of its 
History. 

Little or nothing now occurs respecting the 
town itself; our attention, therefore, must hence¬ 
forth be directed ehiefly to its Church, and its 
once splendid Episcopal Palace. 

*Warner’s Domesday for Hampshire, p. 46. 
j Ibid. Introduction, p. G. 

X Saxon Chron. Ed. Gibson, 132. Matt. Westminster, 11)8. 



®i)C CTj&urci). 


The Church claims our first notice in priority 
of timCj as well as of importance. The Church 
should be considered as the nucleus (if I may so 
speak) of every place of Christian habitation. It 
ought not to be a mere afterthought, the forced 
offspring of disagreeable necessity, the unwil¬ 
lingly produced appendage of the shop, the ware¬ 
house, and the manufactory. Did men ^^walk by 
faith and not by sighC^—did they ^^set their 
affection on things above, not on things on the 
eartld^—were they as wise for eternity as they 
are for the fleeting existence of this mortal state, 
the temple of God, the house of prayer, of so¬ 
cial ^^common^^ prayer and thanksgiving, the 
place of hearing, and instruction in the sublime 
and glorious truths of the everlasting Gospel, 
words by which they might be saved,^^ would 
be their first care. A better spirit, we trust, is 
now beginning to prevail in this respect; and, 
like David, when seated firmly on his throne, 
men now begin to desire to build a sanctuary to 
the Lord of Hosts. It was so in the days of the 
Anglo-Saxon dynasty ; when, by wise and good 
regulations, the more opulent landowners were 
encouraged by certain privileges held out to 


THE CHURCH. 


them for the purpose^ to build churches where- 
ever they were wanted.* j When the original 
Parish Church was built we have no record; at 
least I have never met with it—without doubt_, 
however, it was coeval with the town, as it is 
mentioned so expressly in Domesday, together 
with its dependant, or capella. This latter, as 
a friend, highly competent to decide on the sub¬ 
ject, suggests to me, is the Church of Bm*sledon, 
over which the Rectors of Bishop’s Waltham, 
till lately, .exercised archidiaconal jurisdiction. 
The present Church exhibits no trace of Saxon, 
or even Normal architecture. The ancient font, 
however, unhappily (I had almost said sacrilegi¬ 
ously; certainty injudiciously and unnecessarily) 
destroyed in 1798, was certainty a genuine Nor¬ 
man one, as a solitary fragment in my posses¬ 
sion shews. The venerable arches, removed for 
the purpose of erecting the enormous gallery on 
the south side, were of the period when the 
circular arch was giving away to the pointed, 
and the Norman style was passing into what is 
commonly styled Gothic. The date of this 
transition period is that of Stephen and Henry 
the Second; and it appears to me likely that 
thejhers and arches, of which I have been 
speaking, were erected together with the rest of 


*S(>ames’s Anglo-Saxon Churcli, p. 102. ad ann. 028. 


THE CHURCH. 


23 


tlie Cliurch, by the munificent Prelate, Henry 
de Blois, of whom we shall have to speak here¬ 
after, as the original builder of the Episcopal 
Palace of Waltham. The piers and arches cer¬ 
tainly bore a considerable resemblance to some 
of that great Prelate^s works at St. Cross—his 
undoubted work. This is, however, matter of 
mere conjecture; the w^ork in question may 
have been as late as 1170 or 1180. Its original 
form appears to have been a nave, south aisle, 
tower, and choir, or chancel. Subsequent al¬ 
terations, additions, and improvements, have 
effaced all the more ancient featm’es. For in¬ 
stance, the choir (or chancel) is the undoubted 
work of the great and liberal Prelate, William 
of AVykeham. The architecture, especially that 
of the small door in the southern wall, and of 
the very beautiful piscina in the presbytery, has 
all the characteristic features of his works ; the 
eastern window bears, in the centre of its inner 
work, the rose, his well-known badge. The south 
door also, especially a flat arch inside of the 
Church, with his favourite double cyma, appears 
to be his ; and probably the whole porch, which, 
disfigured by bad taste and ignorance as the 
parapet is, presents a portal not unworthy of 
the illustrious episcopal architect. The rest, 
with the exception of the western door, which, 
though small in dimensions, is beautiful] v turned 


24 


THE CHURCH. 


tind moulded^ is of comparatively modern date, 
and offers to tlie architect and antiquary little 
that can interest. The tower, for example, is 
only of the age of Queen Elizabeth. It is re¬ 
corded in the register of the parish, that the 
former tower and steeple of the Church fell 
down on December 31st, 1582, began to be re- 
edified in 1584, and was finished in 1589.^^ 
The north aisle was built to enlarge the Church 
hi 1637. The south aisle was rebuilt, and, as 
it appears from the work, enlarged, in 1652. 
The handsome freestone of which this portion is 
constructed, perhaps was furnished by the then 
newly-destroyed palace. The organ was erected 
in 1734. It was brought from the chapel of 
Southwick House, then, I believe, in the pos¬ 
session of Mr. Norton, the eccentric builder of 
the now 'destroyed hunting seat at Stony Dean; 
and the still more eccentric maker of a will, in 
which he bequeaths in trust his property to the 
poor and distressed throughout the world^^— 
(his benevolence was of no contracted order 
surely)—^the Bishops of the Church, and on 
their refusal to undertake such a charge, no 
small addition to their ah’eady awfully responsi¬ 
ble duties, “ the Parliament,^^ being appointed 
executors. The will was set aside on the score 
of want of proper judgment on the paid of the 
testator. But notwithstanding this seeming in- 




THE CHURCH. 


capacity_, Mr. Norton appears to have been a 
considerable benefactor to the Church of Walt¬ 
ham. An inscription on the treble bell records 
it to have been his gift. The organ, an un¬ 
doubted work of the famous Bernard Schmidt 
(or Smith) was most probably presented by him;* 
and I think I have heard it reported that the 
handsome, though certainly incongruous, altar- 
piece, is to be ascribed also to his liberality. 
The organ was placed in the Church tlirough the 
exertions of one whose name, from its high re¬ 
spectability, ought not to be forgotten (though 
his tomb, at the south-west angle of the tower, 
has of late years been displaced), Mr. William 
Horner. 

Returning to the choir, or chancel, we find vari¬ 
ous objects of no common interest. The piscina, 
or ornamented recess in the south wall, where it is 
almost invariably found in our ancient churches, 
was a necessary appendage to the celebration of 
the mass. Considered, not as sacramental em¬ 
blems, as they are in the Church of England, 
but as the actual body, soul, and divinity of our 
Redeemer, without any admixture of their own 
material substance, (which ceased to exist after 
the words of consecration had been pronounced 

♦ I regret to state that it has lately been replaced 
bv a new one. 


c 


26 


THE CHURCH. 


by the priest^) * the eucharistic elements of 
bread and wine were treated with the same reve¬ 
rence and devotion as would be due to Our Lord 
himself^ in actual bodily presence; and anything 
tending to pollute them, by unhallowed contact, 
was viewed with the utmost horror. If, there¬ 
fore, any insects, or flies, the emblems of unclean 
thoughts, found their way into the chalice after 
consecration, the intruder (according to some) 
was to be burnt, and the ashes, together with 
the polluted wine, were to be poured aw'ay into 
the earth, through the stoup, or sink, of the 
'piscina. And as the priest, after touching and 
handling things so supremely holy as the sacred 
body of the Redeemer, was enjoined to wash 
his Angers, lest any particle of the di\dne body 
should adhere to them, and be lost or trampled 
under foot, some have asserted that the rins¬ 
ing of his hands was also to be poured away in 
the same manner. The Canon Missce, how¬ 
ever, the Romish service book, directs that the 
celebrant- shall swallow the water which had 
been so used.f The piscina was often fur¬ 
nished with a shelf, on wLich the chalice, &c. 
might be placed. This appendage is to be 

* Prof. Fid. Cathol. sec. Cone. Trident. Sylloge Con¬ 
fess. p. 4. 

t “ Abluit digitos, extergit, et sumit ablutionem : ex« 
tergit os,” &c.—Missale Rom. Can. Missae. 


THE CHURCH. 


found in Wykeham^s beautiful one at Waltham. 
On the opposite side, in the north wall, is the 
ambry, or aumbry, a recess having a door, in 
which the tabernacle, containing the Host, or 
consecrated wafer, was kept, probably for the 
use of the sick, to whom it was carried in 
solemn procession. This custom is constantly 
observed in those countries where Popery is 
established. The Host is borne along the 
streets by the priests, under a canopy : its ap¬ 
proach is announced by the sound of a little 
bell, and every one is required to fall down on 
his knees on the ground as it passes—may I 
add and worship it ? I believe I am justified 
in so doing; and we well know that the neg¬ 
lect, or the conscientious withholding of this 
idolatrous adoration, is not unfrequently pun¬ 
ished after the genuine Pomish fashion, by 
severe bodily chastisement, or by the application 
of that infallibleargument, the heretic-de¬ 
stroying dagger.* Against these superstitions 
and idolatries the words of the 25th Article of 
the Church of England seem to be directed, 
which declare that ‘^The sacraments,^^ i. e. the 
‘^outward and visible signs,^^ ‘^‘^were not ordained 

* While these sheets were preparing for the press, an 
instance of this intolerant superstition has occurred at 
Malta. See Rogers on the Articles, p. 167, a. d. 1658. 
Popery is “ semper eadem.” 

c 2 


28 


THE CHURCH. 


of Christ to be gazed upon, or to be carried 
about; ” and the 28th Article more emphati¬ 
cally affirms that ^^the sacrament of the Lord^s 
Supper,^^ i. e. the bread and wine of the Holy 
Eucharist, “was not by Christas ordinance re¬ 
served, carried about, lifted up, or worshipped.^^* 

I regret to say that the mummery, thus de¬ 
nounced by the Church, has been of late openly 
exhibited in one of the large towns of Protest¬ 
ant England! 

Before we quit the chancel, we may notice 
some monumental records of departed worth* 
which it contains. In the pavement, just 
below the steps of the presbytery, is a stone, 
(covering the grave of some of the family of the 
Sharrocks; one of whom, Robert Sharrock, was 
the friend of the illustrious philosopher Boyle, 
and editor of some of his works.t To the 
northern wall is affixed a small monument to the 
children of Joseph Goulston, or Goulson, n. n. 
prebendary of Winchester Cathedral and rector 
of Waltham at the stormy period of the great 
rebellion. He was a decided royalist, created 
D.D. at Oxford, about 1645. He is said to have 
been a sufferer, with so many others of his sa¬ 
cred order, in those calamitous times when re- 

* See a paper on stone seats and piscinae in Archaeolo- 
gia, vol. xi. 

t Usefulness of Natural Philosophy. 1663. 


THE CHURCH. 


29 


publican and scliismatical tyranny for a wliile 
prevailed against the altar and the throne; when 
to be a churchman^ was to be esteemed and 
treated as ^^a malignant;^’ and to use the beau¬ 
tiful and truly scriptural Common Prayer^^ was 
classed among the most heinous crimes^ and 
punished accordingly.* In many instances^ the 
ill-treatment of the clergy, driven from their 
benefices and their pastoral charge by the rebel 
soldiery, amounted to savage persecution : they 
were expelled by violence from their homes; left 
without even shelter for themselves and their 
families; and exposed to such sufferings as, in 
some instances, put a period to their lives. To 
what extent Dr. Goulston suffered in his pre¬ 
bend and his rectory is not accurately known. 
He, however, survived to see the restoration, 
and became Dean of Chichester. He died 
about 1674.* 

A yet more distinguished name among the 
rectors of Waltham meets the eye within the 
rails of the presbytery: that of Pobert W^ard, 
D. D. whose gravestone is an interesting memo¬ 
rial indeed, I earnestly hope never to be re- 

* See a curious “Ordinance for the ejecting of scandal¬ 
ous, ignorant, and insufficient ministers and schoolmas¬ 
ters. Ordered in council by His Highness the Lord Pro¬ 
tector /” in 1654, p. 613. 

* Walker’s Sufferings of the Clergy, i. 77. 

C3 


30 


THE CHURCH. 


moved or destroyed wliile tlie present cliancei 
stands; yea more, Avhile tlie Churcli of England, 
built on the Holy Word of God, shall exist, a 
praise and a blessing to the whole earth. Hr. 
Ward was tutor, in early life, to the deeply 
learned and excellent Bishop Andi’ewes; who, 
on becoming Bishop of Winchester, preferred 
him to the Bectory of Waltham. It was, indeed, 
through Ward^s recommendation that Andrewes 
was bred to learning; to him, therefore, under 
Providence, we own this great light of the Chui’ch 
of England.* But this is not all we have to re¬ 
cord of this distinguished Rector of Waltham. 
He w as also one of the 48 learned men, selected 
under James I. to make the new translation of 
the Bible. The portion more particularly al¬ 
lotted to him is said to have been the Apocrypha; 
but doubtless he assisted in the translation of 
the infinitely more valuable part of this great 
work, the Canonical Scriptures.f The Church 
of Waltham, then, contains, what only 47 others 
in England can possess, the remains of a trans¬ 
lator of the Bible. I speak, of course, of the 
last and authorized version. By his side, and 

* Funeral Sermon appended to Bishop Andrewes’s Ser¬ 
mons, fol. 1641, p. 17. ' 

t See Fuller’s Ch. Hist. B.X. p. 46, fol. ed. Johnson’s 
Hist. Account of Translations, in loc. 


THE CHURCH. 


31 


under the soutliern wall, is the grave of the wife 
of Bishop Horn, who died, in the Palace, doubt¬ 
less, in 1575. The inscription on her grave¬ 
stone, 

“ Margeria hie recubat, conjux qiise pra3sulis Horni,’' 
“ Una exul Christi, vera Tabitha fuit.” 

tells a tale of popish persecution. On the acces¬ 
sion of that evil genius i\Iary I. the reformers 
of the Church, like their predecessors in aposto¬ 
lical times, ^Svere scattered abroad,^^* and com¬ 
pelled to seek safety and life in foreign realms. 
The evil of this is felt at the present hour. When 
the storm of persecution had passed away, they 
returned. But they brought with them opinions 
and prejudices, imbibed in their sojourn among 
the foreign reformers, subversive, in some de¬ 
gree, of the order and ritual of the Church of 
England. They brought with them, in short, 
the seeds of dissent and schism, which have since 
sprung up throughout the realm, and produced 
such baneful fruits; to mention but one out of 
many—the Bebellion. One of these puritani¬ 
cally-affected persons was Robert Horn, whose 
zeal against popery was shewn, somewhat mis¬ 
chievously, as well as injudiciously, by his effect¬ 
ing the destruction of the ancient and interest¬ 
ing Norman Chapter House of his Cathedral,t 


* Acts, viii. 1—4. 


t Milner. 


32 


THE CHURCH. 


and the beautiful altar screen of New College 
Chapel. He died in 1589, and his grave-stone, 
in the Cathedral, describes him also as quon¬ 
dam Christi causa exul.^^ * 

Connected Avith the name of Bishop Horn is 
that of the eminent critic Nicholas Fuller, an¬ 
other distinguished Hector of Waltham. Fuller 
was bom at Southampton in 1557, and edu¬ 
cated there. He Avas afterAvards taken into 
Bishop Hornes family, and became his secretary. 
He subsequently Avent to Oxford, where he took 
his degrees. His first preferment was the small 
parsonage of Addington, in Wiltshire, Bishop 
Abbott, of Salisbury, made him a canon of his 
Cathedral. Afterwards,^^ says his namesake, 
the liistorian, a liAung of great value Avas sent 
by Bishop AndrcAves, the patron thereof, on the 
welcome errand to find out Mr. Fuller to accept 
the same, who Avas hardly contented to be sur¬ 
prised with a presentation thereunto; such his 
love to his former small living and retired life. 
He was the prince of all our English critics. It 
is hard to say Avhether more candour, or learn¬ 
ing, or judgment, was blended in his Miscella¬ 
nies. By discovering how much Hebrew there 
is in the New Testament Greek, he cleareth 

* Godwin de Prgesnl. p. 301. There are some inter¬ 
esting letters of Horn’s, dated from Waltham, in the 
“ Zurich Letters” of the Parker Society, p. 320—3. 


THE CHURCH. 


33 


many real difficulties from his verbal observa- 
tioiis.^^* He died iu 1622. The Miscellanea/ 
still holding a high place in the ranks of 
learned theology, are inserted in the 9th volume 
of the CriticiSacri, and are interspersed through¬ 
out the abridgment of them, the valuable Sy¬ 
nopsis of Pool. Two works on the Hebrew 
language by Fuller, one of them notes pertain¬ 
ing to a Hebrew Lexicon, remain in manuscript 
in the Bodleian Library.f 

Personal respect, and admiration of extensive 
scholarship, will not allow me to pass over in 
silence another learned Bector of Waltham, of 
more modern times—the admirable linguist. 
Hr. Henry Ford. He is said to have been ac¬ 
quainted with no less than tw'enty-two languages 
and dialects, classical. Oriental, and Em’opean. 
As an Oriental scholar, few, even among pro¬ 
fessed Orientalists, could perhaps be compared 
with him. His knowledge extended to dialects 
which few have cultivated, and whose very names 
are scarcely known to the generahty of scho¬ 
lars. At the same time his acquaintance with 
the European tongues was held to be all but 
universal. I trust I shall be excused for intro¬ 
ducing this notice of one of the most esteemed 


*Fuller’s Church Hist. xi. 50, p. 127, fol. ed, 
t Wood’s Athenee, i. 474. 


34 


THE CHURCH. 


friends of my father, one of the most revered 
“ guides of my own youth/^ the learned Princi¬ 
pal of Magdalene Hall, and Professor of Arabic 
in the University of Oxford. 

We must not leave the Church without no¬ 
ticing two monuments, which present objects 
of some interest. On those which affectionate 
respect has dedicated to the memory of very 
near and very dear relatives of my own, it be¬ 
comes me not to dwell. The monuments to 
which I refer are, that inscribed with the name 
of Mrs. Jane M'right, a member of the family 
of the Boswells, of Auchinleck; a name rendered 
familiar to English ears by the well-known and 
popular life of Johnson, for which we are in¬ 
debted to a cotemporary individual of the same 
family, the sometimes weak and childish, and 
generally vain and egotistical, but certainly 
most attached and interesting biographer of one 
of England's brightest literary ornaments. From 
this circumstance some have conjectured that 
the metrical part of the inscription might have 
written by Johnson. It is, indeed worthy even 
of him ; but his acquaintance with Boswell did 
not commence till long after the death of Mrs. 
Wright, and the probable erection of her mo¬ 
nument.* 

Boswell’s Life of Johnson, voL i. 350. It was in 1763. 


THE CHURCH. 


35 


The other monument is that of Robert Kerby, 
Esq. who augmented the endowment of the 
Free School of the parish, founded by Bishop 
Morley, one of those munificent prelates who 
have done honom' to the see of Winchester. In 
connexion with this subject, must be mentioned, 
with gratitude and respect, another benefactor 
to the School and to the Chiu’ch, though not in¬ 
terred within the walls of the latter. I mean 
Miss Marv Bone, who entailed on her estate at 

t/ y 

Lomar, in the parish of Corhampton, the paj^- 
ment of a considerable yearly sum in augment¬ 
ation of the income of the School; and be¬ 
queathed one of the larger vessels used in the 
celebration of the Holy Communion. This ex¬ 
cellent young woman, who, like the blessed 
child^^ Edward VI. exhibited in her character 
and conduct the beautiful spectacle of youthful 
piety, died in 1732, at the early age of twenty- 
three years. 


IJalacc. 


We pass on to that which, in ancient times, 
was Waltham^s chief glory; and which, even in 
decay, forms, in these our days, its great object 
of interest. The Episcopal Palace. 

This was, in its prosperity, a place of note, 
and of very considerable magnificence. Le- 
land, who wrote in the reign of Henry VIII. 
says of it, ^^Here theBisshop of AVinchester hath 
a right ample and goodly maner place, motid 
aboute; and a praty brooke renning hard by 
it.*^^ The antient historians inform us that it 
was begun to be built in 1136 or 1138, by 
Henry de Blois, Bishop of Winchester and 
brother of King Stephen.f The same great 
and munificent prelate was engaged, at the 
same time, in building castles, or fortified man¬ 
sions, at Wolvesey, Earnham, Merdon, and 
Taunton; besides the Hospital of St. Cross. 
He was the nephew of Henry I. being the son 
of his sister Adela, who was manded to the 
Count de Blois. Having been previously Abbot 

* Itinerary, in. 115. Third edit. Hearne. 

t Rudborne, Hist. Maj. apud Wharton, Ang. Sac. 
i. 284. Annales Wint. Eccles. apud eimdem, 298. 
Milner, Hist. Wint. i. 210. 4to. ed. 


THE PALACE. 


37 


of Glastonbury^ lie was nominated to tlie see of 
Winchester, by the King, in 1129. The Bishop 
was a man whose eminent mental qualifications 
and endowments rendered him worthy of his 
high dignity. He is described as prudent and 
upright, though sometimes too yielding through 
benevolence of disposition. He was a scholar: 
the author of a book, (which was extant in the 
time of Bishop Godwin,) on the discovery of the 
grave of the renowned King Arthur, at Glaston¬ 
bury, so vividly described by Warton, which 
took place during his abbacy. On the death of 
Henry I. the bishop, and other barons of the 
realm, took an oath of fealty to Matilda, or 
Maud, the empress, the king^s daughter. But, 
as she delayed her coming into England, owing 
to a marriage which she had contracted, the 
bishop, fearing a disputed succession, and con¬ 
sequent bloodshed, being at the time the Pope^s 
legate, called a synod; and having gained over 
Boger, the potent Bishop of Salisbury, persuaded 
the clergy to elect his brother Stephen, Count 
of Boulogne, king.* 

Hence arose the civil wars, which so long 
raged in this part of the kingdom; of which ves¬ 
tiges remain in the neighbourhood of Bishop’s 
Waltham. They occur in the name of the 

* Godwin de Prsesul. 

D 


38 


THE PALACE. 


adjacent down, ^^Steplien^s Castle/^ on which 
appear marks of earth works; and where was 
a barrow, which has been carried away; by 
which, as in other cases of destruction of anti- 
ent relics, a sentence has been blotted out of 
the page of English history. The coins, also, 
found a few years since at Beauworth, all of the 
period in question, are probably memorials of 
these direful contests. They might have formed 
part of the military chests of one of the con¬ 
tending parties.* In the course of these con¬ 
flicts, Winchester was the scene of some of the 
most important operations, and consequently 
suffered much detriment. Stephen's party had 
possession of the bishop^s castle of Wolvesey, 
from which they threw fire-balls on the houses 
occupied by the other party, which consumed 
many of the public buildings, abbeys, churches, 
and the royal palace. During these commotions, 
however, the bishop himself is supposed to have 
been in comparative retirement at his palace at 
Waltham.t At length, Stephen having lost 
his only son Eustace, it was agreed by him and 
the nobles of the realm, that he should possess 

* Description of the coins of William the Conqueror 
found at Beauworth, by E. Hawkins, Esq. F.S.A. com¬ 
municated' to the Society of Antiquaries. 

t Milner’s Hist. Win. i. 213. Baker’s Chron. 


THE PALACE. 


39 


tlie crown for tlie remainder of liis life, and that 
he should adopt as his son and heir to the 
kingdom, Henry, the empresses son. This ar¬ 
rangement put an end to the civil war. 

On the accession of Henry II. a. d. 1154, 
Bishop de Blois, being under some apprehen- 
for the safety of his person and his property, 
went abroad, with whatever money he could 
collect together. This provoked the king, who 
seized on his three castles, Wolvesey, Waltham, 
and Merdon, which he dismantled. Afterwards, 
the king and the bishop coming to a right un¬ 
derstanding, the latter retmmed to his bishopric, 
and' ever afterwards continued on the best terms 
with his royal cousin.* Henry de Blois is 
highly spoken of by a cotemporary writer, who 
enlarges much, not only on his talents, birth, 
and power, but also on his piety, regularity, and 
episcopal zeal. He tells us that the bishop made 
roads and aqueducts; that he collected natural 
curiosities of various kinds; that he was a watch¬ 
ful guardian of his cathedral church and monas¬ 
tery, having recovered to them much alienated 
property, and added donations of his own. But 
his great work was the foundation of the Hos¬ 
pital of St. Cross: this has immortalized his 
name. The endowment was for thirteen poor 

D 2 


♦Ibid, p. 219. 


40 


THE PALACE. 


men^ who were to be lodged and provided with 
every necessary. Besides these^ 100 others were 
to be every day supplied wdth a plentiful meal, 
in a hall appointed for the purpose, thence called 
J)UnUrely=mennt0=t)alU* The venerable as¬ 
pect of the place, the beautiful chm’ch, the mo¬ 
nastic solitude and quiet repose, the dress of the 
brethren, the silver cross on their breast, all 
tend to interest the visitor of this ancient esta¬ 
blishment ; and powerfully remind him of past 
ages; while to the antiquary the church is a 
most valuable and attractive architectural relic, 
a feast, a study. In his old age Bishop de 
Blois increased his charities so much as hardly 
to leave himself and his servants the means of 
procuring one slender meal in the day. In ad¬ 
dition to the loss of his sight, wdiich he endured 
with great resignation, he added voluntary mor¬ 
tifications; in the practice of which, and in con¬ 
stant prayer, he died a.d. 1171, and was buried 
before the high altar in his cathedral.^^f Such 
was the builder of the Castle or Palace of South 
Waltham; one famous in his generation, a 
man of renown,^^ and worthy to be held in per¬ 
petual remembrance. 

The next incident to be noticed in the History 

* Milner, v. ii. 142 ; Lowth’s Life of Wykeham, 7. 72. 
t Milner, i. 223—6. 


THE PALACE. 


41 


of Waltham Palace is one of considerable in¬ 
terest and importance^ as it is connected with 
one of the most remarkable passages in the an¬ 
nals of Europe itself^ viz. the Crusades. In 
1182 the King held a great council of the no¬ 
bles of the realm at the Bishop of Winchesters 
Waltham.^^ This council granted him supplies 
for carrying on this supposed holy warfare^* 
amounting to 42^000 marks of silver and 500 
of gold. There can he no doubt as to the ac¬ 
tual scene of this transaction. The bishop^s 
palace would naturally, we may almost say ne¬ 
cessarily, receive the sovereign as its honoured 
guest; the most spacious apartment in it would 
be selected as the council chamber. The great 
liall of the Palace may therefore be fairly pointed 
out as the very spot where Henry, and his no¬ 
bles and prelates, met on this occasion; and 
here, amidst its roofless and mouldering walls, 
the antiquary, and the historian, and the stu¬ 
dent of man and his intellectual, and moral, and 
political character, may linger ; and, in solemn 
musings,* ponder on the events of ages long 
passed away. It appears that Henry made his 
will at Waltham, on the occasion of this visit.t 

* Diceto, p. 613; Leland Collect, iii. 264; Matt West¬ 
minster, p. 253. 


t Chron. Gervas, p. 1459. 


42 


THE PALACE. 


He then went to Portsmouth^, where he embarked 
for France_, to concert measm*es with the King 
of France for carrying on the Crusade.* 

It may be interesting to add a few words on 
the subject of these expeditions, which form so 
remarkable a feature in the history of the mid- 
die ages. 

In those days of romantic devotion there 
generally prevailed a strong desire of visiting 
the land of Palestine, the hallowed scene of 
man^s redemption. The Holy Sepulchre, in 
particular, where the body of the Divine Re¬ 
deemer had lain, was the object of most intense 
and fervent devotion. Pilgrimages to this sa¬ 
cred spot were reckoned among the works of 
merit by which men supposed that they should 
purchase the bhss of Heaven. But when the 
Turks conquered Syria and Palestine, about the 
year 1050, the pilgrims were exposed to every 
kind of outrage. Previous attempts had been 
made by the Pope to rouse the spirit and zeal 
of the Christian world. But Gregory VII. in 
the beginning of the tenth century, proposed to 
invade the Holy Land in person, and about 
50,000 men were already mustered to foUow^ him 
in this projected expedition. His disputes with 
the Emperor Henry IV. prevented the prosecu¬ 
tion of this design. But the spirit of the peo- 

* Ibid. 


THE PALACE. 


43 


pie was now inflamed; and Peter the Hermit^ 
returning from a journey which he had made 
through Palestine, a. n. 1093, complained of 
tlie sufferings of the Christians, and ran from 
province to pro\dnce with a crucifix in his hand, 
exciting the people to engage in this holy enter¬ 
prise, and even pretending a divine commission 
for this purpose. 

The flame was thus kindled which continued 
to bm’n for two centuries, during which Europe 
seemed to have no object but to recover, or 
keep possession of, the Holy Land. Vast num¬ 
bers; of all ranks, ages, and of both sexes, crowd¬ 
ed to the standard, and flocked to the scene of 
Avarfare. The first Crusade was in the year 
1096; the second in 1147. The third, in 1189,. 
was undertaken by Frederick I. (surnamed 
Barbarossa,) Emperor of Germany, whose exam¬ 
ple Avas followed, in 1190, by Philip Augustus, 
King of France, and Bichard Coenr de Lion. 
These tAvo monarchs arrived in Palestine a. n. 

4 

1191, and succeeded in their first encounter 
Avith the infidels. After the reduction of Acre, 
or Ptolemais, the King of France returned to 
Europe; and the King of England carried on 
the war with great Augour: and not only de¬ 
feated Saladin in several engagements, but 
made himself master of Jaffa and Caesarea. 
HoAvever, being deserted by his allies, he con- 


44 


THE PALACE. 


eluded^ in 1192, a truce with Saladin for three 
years, three months, and three days; and soon 
evacuated Palestine with his whole army.* 

It was in this expedition that he so distin¬ 
guished himself by deeds of valour. But, what 
is more to our present pm’pose, is that it was 
for this Crusade, when contemplated by his 
father, that the supplies were granted, as we 
have seen, in the council held at Waltham. 

The next visit of royalty to Waltham Palace 
was that of Bichard himself, who was there 
after his second coronation in Winchester Ca¬ 
thedral. He appears to have taken Waltham 
in his way to Portsmouth, where he embarked 
on his last expedition, from which he never re¬ 
turned. This must have been about a. d. 1196, 
the year in which the knightly and lion-hearted 
monarch of England lost his life at the siege of 
Chaluz.f We may apply to him the energetic 
lines of Johnson, descriptive of the end of a 
warrior-king of somewhat similar character,— 
Charles XII. of Sweden. 

“ His fall was destin’d to a barren strand, 

A petty fortress, and a [dubious] hand. 

He left a name at which the world grew pale, 

To point a moral, or adorn a tale.”t 

* See Rees’s Cyclopaedia, art. Croisade. There were 
nine crusades in all: the last was a.d. 1270. 

t Milner’s Hist. Win. i, 233. 

X Vanity of Human Wishes. 


THE PALACE. 


45 


The Palace, thus dignified by the presence of 
royalty, continued to be one of the principal 
residences of the successive bishops of the 
diocese. In tracing its annals, we arrive at the 
times and the illustrious name of Wykeham. 
This distinguished prelate and benefactor is 
stated to have been’ born at the neighbomdng 
village of Wykeham (now Wickham) a. d. 
1324, or the 18th of Edward II. His surname 
was either simply Wykeham, or de Wykeham. 
Bishop Lowth, his learned and able biographer, 
inclines to the former appellation, and states, 
in support of his opinion, that several of the 
bishop^s kindred, bearing the same name, e. y. 
his great nephews, were admitted as Fellows of 
his college in 1387, 1390, 1395. He is, how¬ 
ever, generally and best known by the name of 
William of Wykeham. His parents are sup¬ 
posed to have been persons of good reputation 
and character. This seems to be implied in the 
motto he afterwards adopted, Manners makyth 
man.^^ At all events, they w ere in narrow circum¬ 
stances, so that they could not give him a liberal 
education. This defect was, however, supplied 
bv some benefactor, said to have been Sir Ni- 
cholas Uvedale, lord of the manor of Wykeham, 
and governor of Winchester Castle, who main¬ 
tained the embryo bishop, statesman, and 
founder, at school at Winchester, where he was 


46 


THE PALACE. 


instructed in grammatical learning, * and wliere 
he gave early proofs of his piety and diligence. 
It does not appear that he was ever a member of 
that University which contains such a splendid 
monument of his liberality, the magnificent^^ Col¬ 
lege of St. Mary of Winchester,^^ or New Col¬ 
lege j and where his memory is enshrined among 
the most renowned and unsparing of her found¬ 
ers and benefactors. 

When he was about 22 or 23 years of age, 
Wvkeham was introduced to the Court of Ed- 
ward III. and placed in his service. The first 
office he is reported to have held is that of 
clerk of the works in two of the king^s manors; 
the date of his patent is May 10, 1356. On 
October 30th following he was made sui’veyor 
of the king^s works at the Castle and in the 
Park at Windsor. This was the foundation of 
his fortune and his fame. His allowance was 
one shilling a day at Windsor; two shillings if 
he went elsewhere ; and three shillings a week 
for his clerk. It was at his instigation that the 
Castle of Windsor was rebuilt in its present 
magnificent form. I speak, of course, of the 
general plan, and of the more ancient parts co¬ 
temporary with him. From this time favour 
and preferment flowed in rapidly, and were 
heaped on him with almost boundless profusion. 
In 1360 he attended the king at Calais, when 


THE PALACE. 


47 


the treaty of Bretigny was solemnly ratified and 
confirmed by the kings of England and France. 
Such was the favour in which he was held, that 
Froissart says ,—‘‘ At this time reigned a priest, 
called William of Wjdveham. This William of 
Wykeham was so much in favoiu* with the king 
of England, that every thing was done by him, 
and nothing was done without him.^^ 

We need not then wonder at his elevation to 
the episcopal dignity. On the death of Edyng- 
don, Oct. 8,1366, by the king^s earnest recom¬ 
mendation, Wykeham was immediately elected 
by the prior and monks of the Cathedral Priory 
to succeed him. Fie was consecrated Bishop of 
Winchester, at St. PauPs, Oct. 10, 1367. In 
the same year he appears to have been made 
Lord Chancellor of England. 

But it is in his episcopal character that we 
have to do with Wykeham. One of his first cares 
was to repair the episcopal houses and build¬ 
ings of all sorts, which had been much dilapi¬ 
dated. These were verv numerous. Besides 

«/ 

many granges, parks, &c. the bishops had ten 
or twelve castles, manor places, or residences, 
e.g. Wolvesey, South Waltham, Harwell, Sut¬ 
ton, Highclere, Farnham, &c. In these repairs 
and restorations he expended about 20,000 
marks, or 13,500—an immense sum in those 
days. What was far better, he was active and 


48 


THE PALACE. 


vigilant in his duties as a bishop, visiting the 
churches and religious houses, reforming abuses, 
and giving injunctions for the due observance 
of their respective rules and orders. 

Among these episcopal labours we must men¬ 
tion the correction of divers abuses in the Hos¬ 
pital of St. Cross, which gave rise to long and 
troublesome litigations. Wykeham persevered, 
and justice at last prevailed. 

But while Wykeham was thus usefully em¬ 
ployed, he w as forming the plan of a noble and 
extensive foundation of his own, and taking mea¬ 
sures for putting it into execution. He had 
long resolved to dispose of the wealth which 
Hmne ProHdence had so abundantly bestowed 
on him, to some work of Christian charity and 
to the public good. In the statutes of his col¬ 
leges he tells us that, on this occasion, he dili¬ 
gently examined and considered the various 
rules of the religious orders, and compared with 
them the lives of their several professors; but 
was obliged with grief to declare that he could 
not any where find that the ordinances of their 
founders, according to their true design and in¬ 
tention, were observed by any of them. This 
reflection affected him gi’eatly, and inclined him 
to take the resolution of distributing his riches 
to the poor with his own hands, rather than em¬ 
ploy them in establishing an institution which 

t 


THE PALACE. 


49 


might become a snare and an occasion of guilt-to 
those for whose benefit it was designed. After 
much deliberation, and devout invocation of the 
Divine assistance, he determined to establish 
two colleges of students, for the honour of God 
and increase of his worship, for the support and 
exaltation of the Christian faith, and for the im¬ 
provement of the liberal arts and sciences. He 
seems to have come to this resolution, and to 
have formed in his mind the general plan, as 
soon as he became Bishop of Winchester; for 
we find that in little more than two years and 
a half he had made purchases of several parcels 
of ground in the city of Oxford, which now' 
make part of the site of his college there. His 
college at Winchester, intended as a nursery for 
that at Oxford, was part of his original plan; for 
as early as 1373 he established a school at Win¬ 
chester, as a preparatory step, as it seems, to 
the foundation of his coUege. The design was 
noble, uniform, and complete. It was no less 
than to provide for the perpetual maintenance 
and instruction of 200 scholars, to afford them a 
liberal support, and to lead them through a 
perfect course of education, from the first ele¬ 
ments of letters through the whole circle of the 
sciences, from the lowest class of grammatical 
learning to the highest degrees of the several 


E 


50 


THE PALACE. 


faculties.* It properly and naturally consisted 
of two parts, unitedly forming two establish¬ 
ments, the one subordinate to the other. The 
design of the one was to lay the foundations of 
science; that of the other, to raise and com¬ 
plete the superstructure; the former was to sup¬ 
ply the latter with proper subjects; and the lat¬ 
ter was to improye the advantages derived from 
the former. The plan was truly great, and an 
original in its kind; as Wykeham had no exam¬ 
ple to follow in it, so no person has ever yet 
been found who has had the ability or the gene¬ 
rosity to follow' his example, except one, and 
that one a king of England, who has done him 
the honour to adopt and copy his whole design.t 
This was the saintlv monarch, the meek 
usui’per,^^ Henry the Sixth, who loved to resort 
to the shrines and altars of Winchester; fos¬ 
tered there the holy flame of Christian charity; 
and, stiiTed up to most praiseworthy emulation 
by the example of the admirable prelate of 
Winchester, began and carried on, as far as he 
was permitted, the still more magnificent found¬ 
ations of Eton and King’s Colleges. 

On March 5th, 1380, the foundation stone of 
Wykeham’s New College at Oxford was laid, 

*Lo\vth’s Life of Wykeliam, p. 92—96. 
fLowth, p. 182. 


THE PALACE. 


51 


and the whole was completed in six years; and 
on April 14, 1386, the Society took possession 
of it with great solemnity.* Its proper name 
is ‘‘ Sevnte Marie^s College in Oxenford.^^ It 
retains, however, to the present day the some¬ 
what anomalous name of ^^New College.^^t 

The endowment of this noble institution is 
for a warden and 70 scholars, clerks, students 
in theology, canon and civil law, and philoso¬ 
phy : twenty were appointed to the study of law, 
ten of them to that of the canon, and ten to 
that of the civil law. The remainin 
to apply themselves to phifosophy or arts 
(sciences) and theology, two to medicine, and 
two to astronomy. Besides these there were 
ten priests, three clerks, and sixteen choristers, 
to minister in the service of the chapel. J 

The body of statutes which Wykeham gave 
to his college was a work upon which he be¬ 
stowed much time and attention. It was the 
result of great meditation and study, assisted, 
and confirmed, and brought to maturity, by 
long observation and experience. Accordingly 
it has always been considered as the most judi- 

Chalmers’s Oxford, i. 119. Ingram’s Memorials, &c. 

f Godwin, p. 289, remarks this more than 200 years 
ago. See, however. Dr. Ingram’s observations on this 
subject. 

X Chalmers. 


g fifty were 





52 


THE PALACE. 


cions and the most complete performance in its 
kind; and as the best model which the founders 
of colleges_, in succeeding times^ had to follow, 
and which most of them have either copied or 
closely imitated.^^* 

The establishment, in proper form, of Win¬ 
chester College followed that of New College. 
Its charter of foundation is dated October 20th, 
1382. In the year following the completion of 
his building at Oxford, he began that at Win¬ 
chester. The first stone was laid March 26th, 
1387; and the warden and other members of the 
Society made their solemn entry on March 28th, 
1393. This Society consists of a warden, se¬ 
venty poor scholars, ten secular priests, perpe¬ 
tual fellows, three priests chaplains, three clerks, 
and sixteen choristers, a head master and under 
masters. 

Such was Wykeham as a founder. His mu¬ 
nificence,^^ says his biographer. Bishop Lowth, 
proceeded always from a constant generous 
principle, a true spirit of liberality. It was not 
owing to a casual impulse, or a sudden emotion, 
but was the effect of mature deliberation and 
prudent choice. His enjoyment of riches con¬ 
sisted in employing them in acts of beneficence; 
and while they were increasing upon him, he 


* Lowth, p. 187. 


THE PALACE. 


53 


was continually devising proper means of dis¬ 
posing of them for the good of the public; not 
delaying it till the time of his death, when he 
could keep them no longer; nor leaving to the 
care of others what he could better execute him¬ 
self; but forming his designs early; and, as 
soon as he had ability, putting them into exe¬ 
cution, that he might have the satisfaction of 

* 

seeing the beneficial effects of them; and that by 
constant observation and due experience, he 
might from time to time improve and perfect 
them, so as to render them still more benefi¬ 
cial.^^* 

% ■ 

Having almost finished his college at Win¬ 
chester, Wykeham undertook to repair, or ra¬ 
ther remodel, at his own expense, the nave of 
the Cathedral. This great work was begun in 
1394, and it was carrying on at the time of his 
death; for he bequeaths 2500 marks for what 
remained to be done, and 500 marks for the 
stained glass windows. It is a stately and mag¬ 
nificent memorial of his great architectural taste 
and skill, as well as of his boundless liberalitv. 
By operations of a very bold and daring na¬ 
ture, requiring consummate masonic and me¬ 
chanical ability, the ponderous architectm^e of 
Walkelyn has been converted into Gothic .of the 


E 3 


* Lowth, p. 96. 


54 


THE PALACE. 


purest and most correct design; and it is not 
perhaps too much to say that, York alone ex¬ 
cepted, the nave of Winchester is the grandest 
and most impressive in the kingdom. In the 
midst of it he caused his resting place to be pre¬ 
pared, the beautiful chantry which contains his 
tomb. Its situation was determined by the 
circumstance of there having been on the spot 
an altar dedicated to the Virgin Mary, where, 
when a boy, he was in the daily practice of at¬ 
tending the mass there celebrated by a monk 
named Pekis; for early piety was one of the ad¬ 
mirable features in the character of this great 
prelate. This spot, so dear to his heart, and so 
enshrined in his memory, he selected as his final 
earthly resting place ; and here, consequently, 
the chantry, a structure of exquisite beauty and 
elegance, was constructed for the purpose. 

Having made all these preparations, and set¬ 
tled all his worldly and spiritual concerns, 
Wykeham, in 1401, retired to SouthWaltham ;* 
here calmly awaiting his end. His will, dated 
here, was signed July 3, 1403. In the follow¬ 
ing year, 1404, on September 27th, the spirit of 
this great and good man here took its flight. 
His body was buried in the beautiful chantry 
already mentioned; and there *rests in peace. 


* “ His favourite residence,” says Dr. Ingram. 


THE PALACE. 


awaiting tlie resurrection of tlie just^ tlie mortal 
part of the illustrious founder, benefactor, states¬ 
man, and prelate, William of Wykeliam. But 
liis memory lives for ever. Of him it may well 
be said in the language of the heathen poet. 
Semper honos, nomenque tuum, laudesque 
manebunt or in that of a bard of much higher 
order, The righteous shall be had in everlast¬ 
ing remembrance.^^ 

Have I trespassed on your time by this some¬ 
what detailed biographical notice ? I plead in 
excuse that it is one of no ordinary man. In 
tracing the annals of Waltham and its Palace, 
we do not look upon his like.^^ Suffer me 
also to plead some strong personal feelings on 
this subject. If your lecturer has now, or at 
any time, found favour in your eyes; if, in the 
discharge of a most weighty and important office, 
he has ever been enabled to fulfil any duty, or 
render any service, in his native parish, he owes 
all, humanly speaking, to the illustrious name of 
Wykeham. You know ‘^‘^my manner of life from 
my youth up how, in early life, I was trained 
by the care of a reyered father, and drank in from 
him the stream of learning j that stream which 
he himself quaffed, in all its purity and freshness, 
from Wykeham’s spring at Winchester. O 
names for ever dear and reverenced, the founder 
and benefactor, the parent and preceptor ! 


56 


THE PALACE. 


Dura raemor ipse mei, dura spiritus bos regat artus! 

Nulla dies unquam meraori vos eximet aevo. 

In 1405 Wykeliam was succeeded in the epis¬ 
copal throne of Winchester by a prelate of dif¬ 
ferent character_, though resembling him in one 
particular^ the renowned Henry Beaufort^ Car¬ 
dinal of St. Eusebius. He was nearly allied to 
royalty^ being the son of the famous John of 
GaunE Duke of Lancaster_, brother of King 
Henry IV. Beaufort_, in early life, studied at 
Oxford, as a member of Queen^s College. His 
academical course, however, was completed at 
Aix la Chapelle, where he applied hinjiself closely 
to the study of both the common and civil law. 
In 1397, he was made Bishop of Lincoln: in 
1399, we find him Chancellor of the University 
of Oxford; in 1404, Lord High Chancellor of 
England; and in the following year he became 
Bishop of Winchester. The cardinal was a man 
of splendid talents as well as of high birth. Spar¬ 
ing in his expenditure, he amassed immense 
wealth. On one occasion he lent his nephew, 
Henry V. .€20,000, to assist him in his expedi¬ 
tion against France; and thus diverted him from 
the meditated plunder of the church. The cha¬ 
racter of this great prelate has been variously 
represented. He appears to have been in good 
credit and esteem with his cotemporaries; but 
in more modern times he has been depicted in 


THE PALACE. 


57 


very dark colours_, anda very unfavourable liglit. 
It is certain he was too much mixed up in the 
secular and political transactions of his time; 
this must ever be a snare to a churchman, and 
unfavourable to his holy profession. His violent 
dissensions, also, with Duke Humphrey of Glou¬ 
cester (surnamed the Good Duke) have been the 
source of much obloquy on his name. The 
duke was a distinguished patron of learning. 
The University Library at Oxford claims him as 
its founder. But between him and the cardinal 
a quarrel arose. The duke’s violent death fol¬ 
lowed j and Beaufort was accused, or suspected, 
perhaps unjustly, of having had a share in the 
foul transaction. On this suspicion Shakspeare 
has founded the celebrated death-bed scene in 
his play of Henry VI. 

Q. Mar .—Wliitber goes Vaux so fast? What news, I 
pray thee? 

Vaux .—To signify unto his Majesty 
That Cardinal Beaufort is at point of death. 

For suddenly a grievous sickness took him, 

That makes him gasp, and stare, and catch the air, 
Blaspheming God, and cursing men on earth. 
Sometimes he talks as if Duke Humphrey’s ghost 
Were by his side; sometimes he calls the King, 

And whispers to his pillow, a^ to him, 

The secrets of his over-charged soul. 

And I am sent to tell his Majesty 
That even now he cries aloud for him. 

[Scene, the Cardinal's hed-clianiber 

King lien .—How fares my lord ? Speak, Beaufort, to thy 
sovereign. 


58 


THE PALACE. 


Card .—If thou be’st death I’ll give thee England’s trea¬ 
sure, 

Enough to purchase such another isle, 

If thou wilt let me live, and feel no pain. 

King Hen. —Ah! what a sign it is of evil life 
When death’s approach is seen so terrible! 

War. —Speah, Beaufort, itis thy sovereign speaks to thee. 

Car .—Sring me unto my trial when you will. 

Died he not in his bed? where should he die ? 

Can I make men live, whe’r they will or no? 

O! torture me no more, I will confess. 

Alive again ? then shew me where he is; 

I’ll give a thousand pounds to look upon him. 

He hath no eyes, the dust hath blinded them. 

Comb down his hair; look, look, it stands upright. 
Like lirae-twigs set to catch my winged soul. 

Give me some drink; and bid the apothecary 
Bring the strong poison that I bought of him. 

King Hen .—Lord Cardinal, if thou thinkest on heaven’s 
bliss. 

Hold up thy hand, make signal of thy hope. 

He dies, and makes no sign! O God, forgive him.”* 

Milner^s ai’giiments to prove this awful re¬ 
presentation a mere fiction^ as drawn from the 
placid expression of the countenance of the effi¬ 
gies of the cardinal on his tomb_, and from the 
inscription wdiich Bishop Godwin records as 
having been placed there^ Tribularer si nesci- 
rem misericordias tnas/^ are most futile. But 
what he says of the calm tenor of his will_, the 
codicil of which was made only two days before 
his deaths is worthy of more consideration, and 
may lead us to liope, in the judgment of charity, 


* Henry VI. Second Part. Act III. 


THE PALACE. 


59 


that the cardinahs character was free from the 
stain of bloody and his end more becoming his 
sacred function. At all events he appears to ad¬ 
vantage as a benefactor. Not to mention some 
acts of liberality shewn at Oxford, we must not 
pass over his being the second founder of the 
Hospital of St. Cross, the buildings of which he 
embellished, and the endowments of which he 
increased by a donation of ^158 13 4 annu¬ 
ally.* His line gateway, in perfect preservation, 
still adorns the venerable buildings of the Hos¬ 
pital. But what most closely connects this dis¬ 
tinguished prelate with Waltham is, that in his 
will, ah’eadj^ alluded- to, he bequeaths to the 
Queen of England, the heroic Margaret, Ins 
blue bed of gold and damask, at his palace at 
Waltham, in the room where the queen used to 
lie when she was at that palace, and three suits 
of the arras hangings in the same room.^^f 

To Cardinal Beaufort succeeded, in the epis¬ 
copal throne of Winchester, a great and illus¬ 
trious man,^'’J worthy to occupy the place, and 
to tread in the steps, of his predecessor, Wyke- 
ham, and, in some degree, emulating his fame. 
This was William Waynfiete, or rather Patten, 

* Lovvtb. 

t Vetusta Monumenta—Gough on Monuments in 
Winchester Cathedral. * 

X Goawin de Praes. 


60 


THE PALACE. 


wliicli appears to have been his family name. 
His father seems to have borne also the name 
of Barbour. He was born_, probably^ at Wayn- 
flete, a market town on the sea coast of Lincoln- 
shire^ where his parents resided; and, likeWyke- 
ham, and many others in those days, took his 
surname from the place of his birth.* Of his 
earlier years we have no satisfactory accounts. 
Bishop Godwin asserts that he was educated at 
both Wykeham^s colleges; but Dr. Chandler 
and other writers do not concur in this. There 
is, however, every reason for believing that he 
received his academical education at Oxford.f 
In 1429 he was appointed' head master of Win¬ 
chester College ; subsequently of Eton, of which 
he was also one of the first fellows. In three years 
he was promoted to theprovostship of the college. 
On the death of Cardinal Beaufort, Waynflete 
was recommended ])y the king, to the prior and 
monks of St. Swithin (the cathedral priory) as 
a proper person to succeed him in the see of 
Winchester, and was promptly and unanimously 
elected by them. He proved himself worthy of 
this high dignity. Anxious for the advancement 
of learning, and following the splendid example 
of Wykeham, he projected the foundation of a 

* Chandler’s Life of Waynflete, p. 1,2, 169. 
j Chalmers. Wood. 



THE PALACE. 


61 


college in the University of Oxford. In 1448, 
the year after his advancement to the mitre, he 
obtained the royal grant, empowering him to 
found a hall for the study of divinity and philo¬ 
sophy, at Oxford; to consist of a president and 
50 poor scholars, graduates.^^* After a consi¬ 
derable delay, perhaps occasioned by the civil 
wars, and the distracted state of England at that 
unhappy period, the foundation stone of the col¬ 
lege was laid, in 1473, the 14th of Edward IV. 
The members of the Society had, to this time, 
lived partly in chambers adapted for them in St. 
John^s Hospital (where the college now stands) 
and partly in the different halls and tenements 
in the High-street, which had been merged in 
the general appellation of Magdalene Hall. But 
now their future stately habitation was prepar¬ 
ing for them. About 1481 the buildings ap¬ 
pear to have been nearly or quite completed, as 
the excellent founder in that year paid a visit to 
his college, to see the buildings.^^ He then 
delivered to the 'Society a body of statutes, 
formed on the model of Wykeham^s, at New 
(College, and revised and'coiTected with his own 
hand. This book is still extant, preserved in the 
•college, a curious and interesting relic of the 
illustrious prelate. The college w^as dedicated 


* Chandler, p. 49. Dr. Ingram says 1457. 


62 


THE PALACE. 


by the name of Seynte Marie Magdalene Col¬ 
lege.The foundation was for a president_, forty 
fellows^ thirty scholars^ (called semi-communarii, 
or deiniesj four chaplains^ priests^ eight clerks, 
sixteen choristers. Such is Magdalene College: 
a ^‘^noble establishment, which has always main¬ 
tained a high rank in the annals of the Univer¬ 
sity. In comprehensivenes of design, and uni¬ 
formity of plan, its architecture stands con¬ 
spicuous among the many splendid and interest¬ 
ing examples of ancient art with which Oxford 
abounds. Its domain contains nearly 100 
acres, of which its buildings are said to cover 
very little less than eleven. Over the whole 
rises the majestic tower, (145 feet in height) 
the great ornament of the eastern approach to 
the city one, as that is, indeed, of unrivalled 
majesty and beauty; the finest entrance to 
the city of palaces.^^ The buildings of 
Magdalene College, the lofty pinnacles and 
turrets, the stately towers, the antique but¬ 
tresses of the cloister, the chapel, the library, 
the grove and gardens, the water-walk,^^ all 
present a scene of beauty unequalled perhaps 
by any collegiate foundation in the world.* 
On these objects of academical grandeur, espe¬ 
cially on the solemn chapel, with its daily 


* Dr. Ingram’s Oxford. 


THE PALACE. 


63 


choral chant, and storied windows, shedding a 
dim religious light,^^ and pealing organ sending 
forth the richest strains of harmony, the mind 
delights to dwell in fond and grateful recol¬ 
lection, which necessarily leads to the conviction 
that happy indeed must be those votaries of 
learning who rove,” 

“ In quest of truth, in Maudlin’s learned grove.”* 

The college, however, splendid as it is in 
architecture, and rieh in endowment, is not the 
only academical institution in Oxford which 
owes its existence to the munificence of Wayn- 
flete. In 1480, before the buildings of the 
college were completed, he erected, in its im¬ 
mediate vicinity, a grammar school, called 
‘^Grammar Hall,” intended by him to be a 
school connected with his greater foundation. 
This was the germ and nucleus around which 
the academical hall of the same name was in 
process of time formed. This has generally 
been a flourishing society. In the time of 
Charles I. it reckoned three hundred students 
on its books, which shows that ‘^‘'as a seat of 
learning it could have been inferior to none in 
the university.” Many eminent men are num¬ 
bered among its members. We may mention 
only Wilkins, the philosophical Bishop of Ches- 


F 2 


* Pope’s Imit. of Horace. 



THE PALACE. 


G4 

ter, and one of tlie founders of tlie Royal So- 
eietyj Sir Matthew Hale, tlie celebrated judge; 
Lord Clarendon, tlie historian; and last, but 
not least, the martyr Tyndale, the translator of 
the New Testament, a. n. 1525, whose portrait 
adorns the refectory. The hall has been, indeed, 
removed from its ancient site, by Magdalene 
College, having been vacated in 1822, when 
divine service was performed for the last time 
in the small but beautiful chapel. The office 
devolved on your lecturer; wdio thus took leave, 
with many an affectionate and solemn feeling, 
of the place of his academical education. The 
transplanted hall continues to prosper, having 
now on its books two hundred members. It 
fully answers the purpose for wdiich it was 
founded; and will, we may fairly presume from 
its present flourishing condition, prove more 
than an equivalent for all the dissolved houses 
of learning to which it has sncceeded.^^* 

Waynflete^s character as a statesman, (he 
w^as in 1456 appointed Lord High Chancellor,t) 
and as a bishop, appears to have been of the 
highest order. J Many of his acts and legal 
documents appear to have been executed at the 
Palace of Waltham.§ And here, too, the close 

* Ingram’s Oxford. f Chandler’s Life, p. 83. 

X It is eloquently drawn by Dr. Chandler, p. 229. 

§ White’s Selbourn, et alibi. 


THE PALACE. 


65 


of liis useful and honourable life took place. 
^^On the 27th of April, 1486, he received some¬ 
thing, as it were, of a divine impression or ad¬ 
monition, not unlike that of Hezekiah, ^Set 
thy house in order, for thou shalt die, and not 
live.^ His will is dated on that day, at Soutli 
AValtham. In the preamble he declares that 
he was panting for the life to come, and per¬ 
ceived the day of his expectation (waiting) in 
this valley of tears arrived, as it were, at its eve, 
and the time of his dissolution at hand.^^* He 
died at Waltham on the 11th of August follow¬ 
ing. His body was removed to AVinchester 
with great funeral pomp, and deposited in his 
beautiful chantry in the cathedral, according to 
the directions in his wilLf 

In 1493, Langton, Bishop of Salisbury, was 
translated to the see of AVinchester. He held 
this dignity, however, but a short time; as he 
died of the plague in 1500. His name is closely 
connected with Waltham Palace, as a consider¬ 
able part of it was built by him. LelandAs 
account of the palace is given in these words :— 
Here^^ (at Waltham) ^^the Bishop of Win¬ 
chester hath a right ample and goodly maner 
place motid about, and a praty brooke penning 
liard by it. This maner place hath beene of 

* Chandler, p. 218. fib. p. 22G-7. 

F 3 


66 


THE EALACE. 


many bissliops^ building. Most part of the 3 
partes of tbe base court was buildid of bricke 
and timbre of late dayes by Bissliop Langton.'’^* 
An ancient date^ on a stone bearing his arms^ 
which I read 1497^ is yet to be seen on one of 
the buildings on the other side of the road_, 
which formerly belonged (as indeed they do 
now) to the palace. Part of his work within 
the moat yet remains entire^ now used as the 
farm house. It bears evident marks of the 
architectm*al style of that period. The wall 
which surrounds the area of the palace on the 
east and souths and which originally ran round 
the whole of it^ as the foundations show, is 
most probably Langton^s work. It is, perhaps, 
one of the most ancient specimens of brick 
work, on a large scale, in the kingdom. 

Langton was succeeded in 1502 (18th of 
Henry VII.) by ^^the chief of all the king’s 
confidential friends and counsellors, Richard 
Fox, successively Bishop of Exeter, Bath and 
Wells, Durham, and Winchester: of the last 
on account of its greater \dcinity to the king, 
who wished for his advice on all matters of 
consequence. Henry lavished on him the marks 
of his esteem and regard; and among the 
bishop’s other honours, was that of being spon- 


* LelancVs Itin. iii. 115. Hearne. 


THE PALACE. 


67 


sor to tlie young prince, afterwards Henry VIII.* 
In the latter part of his life he retired from the 
court and civil affairs, and employed his time in 
preaching and other good works. His charities 
were abundant, and his style of living splendid 
and hospitable. It .is said that he kept at 
Wolvesey an establishment of 220 men-ser¬ 
vants. The public works, too, in which he was 
engaged, are another mark of his munificence. 
Not long before his death he founded, built, 
and endowed Corpus Christ! College, in Oxford, 
The endowment of his college was not with 
ecclesiastical property, as had not unfrequently 
been the case in similar institutions, but with 
estates which he purchased for this express 
purpose. The college, the license for the foun- 
' dation of which bears date 1516, was for the 
sciences of divinity, philosophy, and arts; for a 
president and thirty scholars, graduate and not 
graduate, more or less, according to the reve¬ 
nues of the society. It was endowed with £350 
yearly. The statutes, dated 1527, enjoin that 
the society shall consist of a president, twenty 
fellows, twenty scholars, two chaplains, two 
clerks, and two choristers. This college, by the 
establishment of lectures in Greek and Latin, 
contributed very materially to that revival of 


* Godwin. 


68 


THE PALACE. 


sound learning wliich so remarkably preceded 
the Reformation. Among its literary orna¬ 
ments, we may record two of surpassing ex¬ 
cellence—the learned and admirable Bishop 
Jewell, and his kinsman the illustrious Richard 
Hooker, the mighty champions of the reformed 
Church of England against popery on the one 
hand, and schismatical puritanism on the other.* 
Bishop Fox^s name does not indeed occur as 
immediately connected with his palace at Walt¬ 
ham, but he doubtless resided here occasionally; 
and such a man and benefactor ought not to be 
passed over in silence. His college was not the 
only mark of his munificence. He rebuilt the 
choir of the cathedral at Winchester in a style 
of splendour and magnificence of the highest 
order; and djdng in 1528, was buried in the 
exquisitely beautiful chantry which he had pre¬ 
pared for the purpose; and which, as Milner 
states, he used as his oratory; spending his 
time there in devotional exercises, and prepara¬ 
tion for his end.f 

Bishop Fox was succeeded by the renowned 
Cardinal Wolsej^, who had long cast a wishful 
eye on the see of Winchester. He did not, 

* Godwin. Milner’s Hist. Win. i. 318, 4to. Chalmers’ 
and Ingram’s Oxford. 

t Godwin, p. 297. Milner, i. 320. For a high character 
of him, see Ingram’s Oxford. 


THE PALACE. 


69 


however/liold it long. His full-blown dig¬ 
nity” (as Johnson expresses it) was approaching 
its period of decay. Before a year had elapsed, 
his sudden disgrace and melancholy end fol¬ 
lowed. He would not have been mentioned in 
this sketch of Waltham’s History, had it not 
been for an expression of Wood, the Oxford 
antiquary; who, in his account of the somewhat 
famous Andrew Borde, who died 1549, records 
his having lent a M.S. work of his to Thomas 
Cromwell, of Bishop’s Waltham, near Winches¬ 
ter ; who being afterwards taken up with state 
affairs, and matters of high concern, lost the 
book, to the great grief of the author.”* We 
know that Cromwell began his career in the 
service of Wolsey; he might, therefore, have 
been residing in or near the palace, as steward 
or confidential agent; or, perhaps, occupying it 
as a personal friend of the cardinal. We find 
him in favour with the latter, and assisting him 
in the foundation of his colleges at Ipswich and 
Oxford, as early as 1525. 

If the names of Henry de Blois, Wykeham, 
Waynflete, and Fox, are to be held in perpetual 
veneration, as prelates, encouragers of learning, 
and benefactors of the human race, that of the 
next bishop who occurs in the annals of Win- 


• Wood’s Athense, i. 75. 


70 


THE PALACE. 


cliester and Waltham is worthy only of unmin¬ 
gled and unadulterated detestation. This was 
the too celebrated Stephen Gardiner, to whom 
the words of the satirist may well be applied: 

“ Monstrum nulla virtute redemptum 

A vitio.” * 

Even of a Popish persecutor we could not use 
such strong language, did not the melancholy 
truth extort it. He was unquestionably a man 
of talents, and bv no means destitute of learn- 
ing (as Bishop Godwin admits), but he made 
use of all the energies of his mind in the vain 
and wTetched endeavour to suppress the truth, 
and smother the springing light of the Reform¬ 
ation. Crafty, designing, unprincipled, faith¬ 
less, a very image of Popery incarnate, he 
could take either side of the question, as suited 
his pm’pose; could write either for or against 
the Pope and Popish errors; and side with 
either party, as best promoted his temporal 
interests.t His cruel and truly diabolical con¬ 
duct towards the martyr-prelates of the Chimch 
of England, the illustrious Reformers, is too 
Avell known. I need not hold up the hideous 

* Juvenal Sat. iv. 2, 3. A vretch ungraced by a 
single virtue. See also Southey’s Book oCthe Church, 
ill loc. 

t See his character as given by Fox ; and Southey’s 
Book of the Church, c. xiii. p. 357. 4th ed. 


THE PALACE. 


71 


picture of Imman depravity. In the reign of 
Edward VI. he was deprived of his bishopric, 
on account of his obstinate resistance to the 
Reformation; and in 1550, Dr. Poynet, a man 
of distinguished learning, who had lately been 
made Bishop of Rochester, was promoted to 
Winchester, in his room. But whatever might 
have been PoyneEs qualifications, in other re¬ 
spects, for his high oftice, a conscientious regard 
for the preservation of the temporalities of his 
bishopric did not form a part of them, as it 
ought to have done. He appears to have been, 
I had almost said, an unprincipled time-server; 
ready at all times to surrender what he held in 
trust for his successors. In this world ^^evil is 
ever mingled with goodand the period of 
the Reformation is marked by the plunder, 
confiscation, and alienation of the property of 
the church to a most scandalous extent. For 
instance; Waltham Palace, and its valuable 
appendages, attracted the notice, and excited 
the cupidity, of the grasping courtiers of the 
day; who vied with each other in appropriating 
to themselves all that they could lay their rapa¬ 
cious hands on. The Lord Treasurer Paulet 
obtained possession of the palace, park, and 
dependent estates of Waltham from Poynet, 
who appears to have signed away the property 


72 


THE PALACE. 


of tlie see without shame or' remorse.* We 
may observe^ with regret_, that the excellent 
young king, Edward VI. seems to have \'iewed 
these acts of spoliation with marvellous com¬ 
placency. In one of his letters he says of 
Waltham Palace, It was a fair old house, in 
times past of the bishop of Winchester; but 
now my Lord Treasurer's, f In the following 
reign, however, that of Mary, Waltham, with 
tlie rest of Poynet^s grants and alienations 
(amounting to an incredible number) was reco¬ 
vered to the church. Gardiner had regained 
his seat on the episcopal throne; and Poynet 
was compelled to flee from the storm, wdiich 
then gathered, with fearful blackness, around 
the Reformation and its promoters, to burst, 
with deadly violence, on the heads of the leaders 
in this great and holy work. Through the 
influence of the restored prelate, this restitution 
was effected; J and thus one good deed mav 
be placed to the account of him of whom scarcely 
anything of a praiseworthy nature is recorded. 
The rest of his life is one tissue of Popish 
bigotry, treachery, cruelty, barbarity, and wick- 

* Heylyn’s Hist. Reform, p. 101, ed. 1674. Milner’s 
Hist. Win. i. 347. The manor and hundred of Waltham 
shared the same fate. See also, on this subject, Southey’s 
Book of the Church, ch. xiii. 

t Letters quoted by Gough. X Heylyn ut sup. 


THE PALACE. 


73 


edness. His end, if we may credit Fox,* was 
suitable to his life. The martjrred prelates met 
death, yea, their fiery death, with calmness and 
peace. Theii’ savage persecutors closing scene 
was one of anguish, remorse, and despair.f 
The wicked is driven away in his \vickedness ; 
but the righteous hath hope in his death.^^ 

The next step in tracing the history of the 
Palace brings us to one of the most illustrious 
prelates that have ever adorned the Church of 
England, either before or since the Reforma¬ 
tion, Lancelot Andrewes. This distinguished 
man was successively Bishop of Chichester and 
Ely, from the latter of which he was translated, 
for his great merit, to Winchester, in 1618. 
Whether we look at his great learning, or con¬ 
template his eminent piety, and his liberal 
encouragement of learning and learned men, 
he appears in every way worthy of our especial 
veneration. As to his learning, “his admirable 
knowledge of the learned tongues,—Latin, 
Greek, Hebrew, Chaldee, Syriac, and Arabic, 
besides modern languages, to the number of 
fifteen,—was such and so rare, that he may be 
well ranked, in the first place, to be one of the 

* Acts and Monuments, iii. 450, 1684, fol. See, for 
manv such instances, Lactantius De Mort. Persecutorum. 

t Burnet’s Hist. Ref. ii. 320. 

G 


74 


THE PALACE. 


rarest linguists in Christendom.^^* His piety 
is shewn by his Manual of Devotion/^ the 
breathings of a truly devout spirit. His own 
M. S. copy_, which was scarcely ever out of his 
hands during his last sickness, was found after 
his death, worn by his fingers and soiled by his 
tears. Pray with Bishop Andrewes for one 
week,^’ says his translator. Dean Stanhope, 
“ and he will be your companion ever after 
His liberality was shewn, among other ways, 
by the sums laid out on his various ecclesiastical 
residences—the Deanery of Westminster, and 
the Palaces of Chichester and Ely. As Bishop of 
Winchester, he expended ^^atWinchester House, 
at Earneham,Waltham, and Wolvesey, two thou¬ 
sand pounds.Eut Andrewes^s liberality was 
not confined to these acts of generosity: his deeds 
of munificence were many: his alms-giving was 
abundant. He was free from all avarice and 
love of money. He had this world^s goods j 
but he loved them not. He had them; but as a 
steward to dispose and expend them.^^ J ^^Lest 
his left hand should know what his right hand 
did, he sent great alms to many poor places under 
other men^s names : and he staved not till the 

* Funeral Sermon, by the Bishop of Ely, at the end 
of Bishop Andrewes’s Sermons, folio ed. 1*641. 

t Funeral Sermon ut sup. X Ibid. 


THE PALACE. 


75 

poor sought him_, for he first sought them, as ap¬ 
peared at Farnham, at Waltham, and at Win¬ 
chester.^^* His will was begun at Waltham.f 
After a life spent in the discharge of every duty, 
and in the performance of every good work, this 
admirable prelate entered into his rest Sept. 25, 
1626, and was buried in the church of St. Savi- 
om*^s Southwark ; where his tomb presents an 
object of deep interest to eveiy lover of all that 
is excellent in man, to every one who reveres 
the memory of the leaimed and the good. 

With the episcopate of Andrewes the history 
of Waltham Palace, as a place of residence, may 
be said to end. For now a darker hour 
ascends^^ than that marked by temporary spo¬ 
liation and alienation; and its glory departs for 
ever. The Great Ptebellion brought with it, 
among so many other miserable consequences, 
the ruin of this stately and interesting edifice. 
The precise date of its destruction is hardly 
known; but it was probably about the time 
when the civil war raged at Winchester and in 
its vicinity, when the ancient Castle of Win¬ 
chester and the Palace of Wolvesey were demo¬ 
lished by the rebels. This was in 1645, desig¬ 
nated by Lord Clarendon as this unfortunate 

* Funeral Sermon ut sup. 
t Ibid. 

G 2 


76 


THE PALACE. 


year.^^* * * § About this disastrous period Waltham 
Palace fell for ever. Its rifted tovrers^ its ruined 
hall, once the resort of royalty, its rent and ivied 
walls, which have resisted the atmospherical, 
though not the political, storms of seven cen¬ 
turies, speak, in affecting language, of the evils 
and miseries of civil discord j and seem to re¬ 
iterate the expostulation of old, “ Sirs, ye are 
])rethren; why do ye wrong one to another 
The tradition of the town (I full well remember 
the impression made on my youthful mind by 
the recital of it in my childhood) is, that the 
Palace was battered down by artillery;! and 
that the bishop made his escape from his infu¬ 
riated assailants by being carried out concealed 
under a load of manure. This latter circum¬ 
stance is probably an embelhshment. The bishop 
was Walter Curie; who, thus dispossessed of his 
palaces, and of the temporalities of his see, and 
stripped, like many others, of even his personal 
property, { retired to Soberton; where he lived 
with his sister, and died before the Restoration. § 

* History of the Rebellion. 

t Grose says the battery was planted on the eastern 
side; probably on the high ground adjoining the South¬ 
ampton road. 

X See Bishop Hall’s “ Hard Measure,” for an atrocious 
instance. 

§ Granger, ii. 156. Walker’s Sufferings of the Clergy. 


THE PALACE. 


77 


One relic of the ravaged Palace yet exists, in 
the possession of your lecturer—a black letter 
folio Bible of 1613, with the roval arms em-^ 
bossed on the cover, and which, as an illiterate 
manuscript notification attests, cam out of the 
pleas hous,^^ i. e. ^^came out of the place- 
house,^^ the ordinary appellation of mansions of 
this description, place^^ being derived from the 
Latin palatium.^^ The Palace being thus de¬ 
stroyed, the manor of Waltham was again alien¬ 
ated from the see. In 1646 it was sold to Robt. 
Reynolds, Esq. for j0 7999 14 lOJ.* After the 
Restoration it was once more recovered to the 
bishop. But the Palace was destined no more 
to raise its head. Bishop Morley, who rebuilt 
Wolvesey and Farnham, and provided a town 
residence at Chelsea, instead of the demolished 
Palace in Southwark, broke up the extensive 
park of Waltham, consisting of nearly 1000 
acres, and divided it into farms ; in which state 
it continues, yet bearing, in common parlance, 
its ancient name, “ the Parkwhile one of the 
farm-Tiouses is stiU called the Lodge.” The 
tenth part, in lieu of tithes, was allotted to the 
rectory of Waltham^ and now forms ^‘^the glebe.” 

The ruins, even in their present state, attest 
the former magnificence of the place. They 


G 3 


♦Gale, p. 16. 


78 


THE PALACE. 


consist of the part now converted into the farm- 
honse_, before mentioned as the work of Langton, _ 
and an extensive buildings now used as a barn, 
which seems to have been offices (perhaps a 
bake-house, for there are marks of what appears 
to have been an oven), with dormitories, proba¬ 
bly, in the upper story. The large building, 
without the inclosure of the Palace, on the other 
side of the road, was probably used as stables. 
Its date has been already noticed. But the princi¬ 
pal part of these interesting remains is the west¬ 
ern front; comprising the porter^ s lodges, at the 
north-west angle, some offices, and the stately 
great haU, lighted, when in its perfect state, by 
ten fine windows, five on each side. At the 
south end of this once splendid apartment are 
the remains of a door-way, by which the hall 
might be approached from the principal rooms of 
the palace, which fronted the south.* The 
passage seems to have been through the lower 
room of the massive tower at the south west 
angle; which yet exhibits, in its basement story, 
the original Norman architecture of Henry de 
Blois. The practised eye of the architectural 
antiquary will discover other traces of this; es¬ 
pecially in an interesting and very characteristic 
window near the end of the great hall, which is 


* Grose’s Antiquities. 


THE PALACE. 


79 


unfortunately yielding (in spite of efforts made 
to preserve it) to the pressure of a superincum¬ 
bent mass of ruin. In the southern end of the 
hall may be discerned evident traces of the 
Minstrel Gallery, whence, on festive occasions, 

“With minstrelsy the rafters rung.” 

In the south west angle a cimous corbel re¬ 
mains, which supported its part of the framed 
timber roof. To this spot, with all its historical 
reminiscences, we may surely apply the lan¬ 
guage of our admirable poet: 

“ Meditation here 

, May think down hours to moments.” * 

For these shattered walls were once the resort, 
as we have seen, of the great, the renowned, 
the brave, the learned, and the good. Here 
was the scene of baronial festivity and episco¬ 
pal hospitality: here 

“ Stately the feast, and high the cheer,” 

which royalty itself disdained not to share, and 
refused not to grace.f 

The sheet of water, into which the roofless 
walls and ruined windows cast their reflection, is 

* Cowper. 

t After so many years of desertion and desolation, 
the ruins of the palace have been once more visited by 
their rightful lord. On the 27th of August, 1835, a day 
memorable for the parish of Waltham, as being that of 


80 


THE PALACE. 


evidently artificial; formed by a mound or dam 
at the southern end, and supplied by the springs 
rising, as Leland describes them, at a short 
distance from the town, at Northbrook. Le¬ 
land calls it ^^a praty stream renning hard by.^^ 
White, on the other hand, dignifies it with the 
appellation of ^‘^a large and beautiful lake.^^f 
The former description falls as short of its real 
size and appearance, as the latter exaggerates 
them. The pond, however, though much de¬ 
creased through the accumulation of alluvial 
soil, presents, with its accompanying scenery, 
the sloping hills, the distant church, and the 
impressive ruins, a scene on which the eye may 
rest not without pleasure.J In the reign of 
Charles II. an aet of parliament was obtained 
for making an artificial navigation from Walt¬ 
ham Pond to the sea. The projeet, however, 
was never realized, and the aet expired. 

tbe consecration of Curdridge Cbapel, tbe Bisbop paid a 
visit to tbe venerable remains of tbe palace of bis pre¬ 
decessors. Tbe author craves permission to record this 
episcopal visit, (a rare occurrence, be believes,) and 
tbe gratification wbicb be bimself felt in being allowed 
to accompany bis honoured diocesan and patron, on the 
occasion, as ‘‘the local antiquary.” 

t History of Selburn. In Wykeham’s time it used to 
be fished on occasions of royal visits to the bisbop,— 
"contra adventum regis.” See Dr. Ingram’s Oxford. 
New College. 


CONCLUSION. 


81 


But I must conclude. We have traced the 
history of our antient town from the remotest 
period of the annals of our country. We have 
surveyed the actions and the characters of gene¬ 
rations long passed away. We have seen the 
grandeur of distant times swallowed up in the 
wreck of ages; while the very fabric, in which 
these scenes of greatness were exhibited, is left, 
an affecting monument of the instability of 
every thing here below. For 

“ On its scatter’d towers stern Ruin sits, 

And grimly smiles at Time’s destroying hand; 
While its rent pillars, and its ivied arches. 

Speak the vicissitudes of earthly things.” 

And what does this teach us ? That man is 
like a thing of nought; that his time passeth 
away like a shadow and that all his greatness 
^4s but the baseless fabric of a vision.” 

Where are the Britons, with their rude fort¬ 
resses in the deep recesses of the forest; their 
Druid priests, with their mysterious rites, and 
their barbarous and cruel sacrifices ? Where 
are Hesus, and Taranis, and Andraste, and all 
their blood-stained divinities ? Where is their 
oppressor, the lordly and warlike Roman ? 
Where are his mighty legions, which overspread 
the land, and held it in subjection ? What 
traces have they left of their existence and their 


82 


CONCLUSION. 


presence ? A few roads, obscurely marked, and 
for the most part nnnoticed, save by the dis¬ 
cerning eye of the antiquary ; a few tessellated 
pavements, the relics of their pride and luxmy; 
and their ashes, ever and anon brought to light 
from the silence of the tomb, and the deep dark¬ 
ness of ^^the dust of death.^^ And where is their 
mighty empire, once almost commensurate with 
the then known world ? Like themselves, 
crumbled into dust. Its very ruinshave perished. 
Even the shadow of its name, which lingered in 
the confederation of the German Empire, has 
passed away for ever. They are gone; and their 
power lives but in the blood-defiled page of the 
history of their conquests and their oppressions. 
Their might is buried with them in one common 
sepulchre. They are whelmed beneath the 
wave which SAvept aAvay their once almost irre¬ 
sistible domination. And where are the suc¬ 
ceeding generations—the fierce Saxon, the 
ruthless Dane, the proud imperious Norman ? 
Wliere are the Monarchs, whose presence 
once graced the stately halls of Waltham ? 
Vanished, like the mist of the morning; gone, 
like the meanest of their vassals. They lie,” 
indeed, ^4n glory,” like the departed potentates 
of Babylon, as described in the magnificent tri¬ 
umphal ode, that more than human eTTiViKiov^ 


* Song of victory. 


CONCLUSION. 


83 


of the inspired prophet: but it is, like them, 
^^every one in his own sepnlclire.^^ The lion- 
heart of the hero of Palestine now rests, in 
form and appearance a shrivelled leaf, beneath 
the pavement of the Cathedral of Rouen. The 
Prelates, those benefactors of the human 
race, the De Blois, the Wykehams, the Wayn- 
fletes, the Foxes, the Andreweses, are gathered 
to their fathers. ‘‘ Their bodies are buried in 
peaceamidst those exquisite specimens of their 
architectm’al taste and skill; where, in former 
times, mistaken piety offered for their souPs 
repose the imaginary sacrifice of the mass; (for¬ 
getful of the universal efficacy of ^^the offering 
of the body of Jesus Christ once for all,^^ the 

full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, 
and satisfaction for the sins of the whole 
world; ”) and where, in these better days, the 
lover of all that dignifies and adorns human 
nature delights to take his thoughtful stand; 
where he contemplates, with thankful heart, the 
memorials of founders and benefactors; and 
sheds the tear of grateful admiration over the 
resting place of the sainted dead. 

And where are their never-dying Spirits ! 

They rest from their labours ; and their 
works,^^ the fruits, we may hope, of tliat justi¬ 
fying faith wdiich worketh by love,^^ (for such 
works could scarcely spring from a spurious 


84 


CONCLUSION. 


motive) will follow them^^ to tlie tribunal of 
their Saviour-Judge. 

And where are the multitudes that for a 
thousand years have peopled the place wdiich 
has been the subject of this evening^s dis¬ 
cussion ? For them, as to their mortal part, 
their exuviae, we have not to look far : ^ye are, 
so to speak, treading on their very dust. The 
shades of night, indeed, are resting on their 
graves in the adjoining cemetery, where per¬ 
haps some eighteen or twenty thousand may 
be reposing in'death: but to the mind^s eye, 
yes, and to the feehngs of the heart, they are 
visible, they are present. There reposes many 
a one, some not unknown to ourselves, loved 
and honoured in life, that life in which they 
served their generation according to the ■will 
of God;^^ and lamented in death, that death 
which to them was the beginning of a deatliless 
existence in bliss and glor}^ 

The pageant of this world passeth away.” 
Where then shall we take our stand amidst its 
changes ? 

“Our narrow ken 

Reaches too far, when all that we behold 

Is but the havoc of wide-wasting Time; 

Or what he soon shall spoil.” 

Where shall we find a resting place ? In Him 
alone who declares, am Jehovah: I change 


CONCLUSION. 


85 


NOT.^^ By faith in Him, and holy obedience to 
His commands, we become partakers of His 
own immortality. The world passeth away, 
and the lusts thereof; bnt^^ (oh ! sublime senti¬ 
ment, which nothing short of divine inspiration 
could have dictated!) he that doeth the 
WILL OF God abideth for ever.^^ In that 
Saviour, the same yesterday, to-day, and for 
ever,” who hath declared, ^^he that believeth 

IN ME HATH EVERLASTING LIFE.” In that 
city,” the heavenly Jerusalem, which hath 
foundations; whose builder and maker is God.” 
There, ‘‘ a rest remaineth for His people.” 
There, no more exposed to the vicissitudes of 
this mortal state, they shall find fulness of 
joy, and pleasures for evermore.” Heaven’s 
eternal year” is then blessed portion. 


THE END. 


H 





ADDENDA. 


HABITATIONS OF THE BRITONS. 

Pages 12 and 13. 

These were not always subterranean: the better sort 
were conical buildings, the foundations of which remain 
in various places. Should such circular pieces of 
masonry be found, they should be carefully preserved 
for the inspection of the antiquary. 


NAME OF THE TOWN. 

Page 18. 

This has been supposed by some to be compounded of 
the Latin vallum, Wal, i. e, vallum; as Wic, i.e. vicus. 
But this is far fetched, and contrary to analogy. The 
Saxons would not have borrowed a Latin term, and com¬ 
pounded it with one of their own, viz. J)am.—Besides, 
in this case it would have been Wal-ham, not Wait-ham. 
Mr. Duthy {Sketches of Hampshire, a truly valuable 
book,) justly remarks, that “ the Saxon letters y and ^ 
are the shibboleth of Norman scribes;” easily con¬ 
founded, like the samech and schin of the Hebrew 
alphabet. Bishop Gibson says, “syllabse weald, wald, 
wait, significant sylvam, saltum, nemus. ‘Wold’is an 

H 2 


88 


ADDENDA. 


open plain, a downy country: locus indigus sylvae.”— 
Apud Anonyiniana^ vii. 281. We have seen that our 
Waltham was properly and originally designated as 
South Waltham. The opposite designation still exists 
in the name of the village of North Waltham. 


BUM MCCLESIM’, or DEPENDENT CHAPEL. 

Pages 19 and 22. 

There is a tradition of there having been a Chapel of 
Ease at Ashton, where the road to Upham meets Ashton 
Street, on the spot now occupied by the smithy and the 
adjoining house. The name of “Chapel” is preserved 
in that of the insulated piece of land; and it has been 
reported to me, in former years, that human bones have 
been dug up there. No traces, however, remain of the 
building. It is probable, however, that such a structure 
once existed, as they are often found in large parishes, 
where they were indeed necessary for the frequent 
services and masses of the ante-Reformation period; 
and where, in strictness of speech, they are equally 
needful at present, for the daily sacrifice of prayer and 
praise, the “pure offering in righteousness” of the 
reformed Church of England, “morning and evening, 
daily throughout the year.” 

The parish of Eastmeon, perhaps the most extensive 
in the diocese, had not only the dependent parochial 
churches of Froxfield and Steep, as at present; but the 
chapel of St. Nicholas, at Westbury, (which still re¬ 
mains, though*dilapidated and desecrated;) and another 
St. Mary’s, I believe, in the tithing of Oxenbourn; and 

fLofC. 


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ADDENDA. 


89 


a third, the foundations of which have been lately dis¬ 
covered, at Langrish. The ecclesiastical provision, 
therefore, for this great parish was the mother church, 
the dependent churches of Froxfield and Steep, and three 
chapels, giving a total of six. The antient chapels are 
now ill replaced by dissenting meeting houses of a low 
description. 

If Bursledon Church be not one of the dace cecclesicB 
of Domesday, the second church may have been the 
chapel at Ashton. 


DR. GOULSTON. 

Page 28. 

He appears to have been Master of Magdalene Hos¬ 
pital, near Winchester, (from which Waynflete, one of 
his predecessors in that office, named his hall and stately 
college at Oxford) when it was seized by the government 
of the day; who ejected the brethren, and applied the 
hospital to the use of Dutch prisoners, by whom it was 
utterly dismantled and ruined. See the old History of 
Winchester in 2vols. 12mo. vol. ii. page 208. 


THE WIFE OF BISHOP HORN. 

Page 31. 

One of the letters referred to mentions her death. 
“Our friend Pilkington, the most vigilant Bishop of 
Durham, died lately; and shortly before him my other 
half, my wife.” Zurich Letters, p. 321, and the original 
Latin, p. 139. The date is August 10th, 1576. 

H 3 


90 


ADDENDA. 


THE CRUSADES. 

Pages 42—44. 

In Robertson’s History of Charles V. (the preliminary 
dissertation) there is an interesting account of these ce¬ 
lebrated expeditions, with some valuable remarks on 
their political consequences, and on the influence which 
they exerted in the formation of European manners and 
society. 


W Y K E H A M. 

Pages 46 and 53. 

It is doubtful whether Wykeham was ever a member 
of the University. Wood states that he spent five years 
and a half at Oxford; but Bishop Lowth seems to doubt 
whether he was ever at the University at all. Mr. Chal¬ 
mers says that he certainly did not study at Oxford. 
He, however, describes him as employing his leisure 
hours in study at Winchester School, in acquiring a 
knowledge of arithmetic, mathematics, logic, divinity, 
and the canon and civil law. “These acquirements,” 
says Dr. Ingram, “ are much more likely to have been 
made at the University; and the title of ‘ Clericus,’ 
which appears in all the patents granted to him before 
he had any preferment in the church, favours the con¬ 
clusion, as this was the general appellation of academi¬ 
cal students. At all events, we may consider him, as 
his biographer observes, a person of as great genius, as 
extensive knowledge, and as sound judgement, as any 
which that age produced.— Ingram’s Oxford. Neiv Coll. 


ADDENDA. 


91 


To Sir Nicholas Uveclale the credit is due of bringing 
forward the talents, and fostering the worth of this 
illustrious prelate, by his early patronage. His merit 
is recorded in an inscription at Winchester College :— 

“VVEDALLUS PATRONUS WICCAMI,” 

a title, indeed, of no ordinary value and dignity. The 
Uvedales continued to reside at Wickham, or, at least, 
to be connected with it, till the middle of the 17th cen¬ 
tury, or nearly so. On the south side of the chancel of 
Wickham church is a kind of mortuary chapel, which 
contains two monuments : one of them to the memory 
“ Gulielmi Uvedale, Armigeri,” the date 1569 ; the 
other to that “charissimi equitis Gulielmi Uvedale,” date 
1615. The latter (if I recollect rightly) is a large and 
costly fabric in the debased style of that age, with 
clumsy recumbent figures, the male in armour, and the 
female in the frightful dress of the times, attended by 
praying children, in no scant measure, and in goodly 
array, planted, like organ pipes, in regular gradation, 
according to their tallness. The design is rendered com¬ 
plete by obelisks, spheres, and other ornaments of that 
tasteless period; during which so many masses of de¬ 
formity were introduced to disfigure our churches. 

The noble zeal of Wykeham stirred up “also other 
founders; e.g. Archbishop Chichele, who, (as Chalmers 
says,) with the spirit of Waynflete in his heart, and the 
example of Wykeham before his eyes,” founded the noble 
and aristocratic college of All Souls, with which are con¬ 
nected, more or less closely, the illustrious names of 
Bishop Taylor ; Linacre, the first teacher of Greek at 
Oxford; Leland, the antiquary; Dr. Sydenham, the 


92 


ADDENDA. 


improver of medical science, (first of Magdalene Hall); 
Sir Christopher Wren; Sir W. Blackstone, the admirable 
commentator on the laws of England; and the late 
excellent and lamented Bishop Heber. 


THE NAVE OF THE CATHEDRAL. 

Page 54. 

Its effect is produced by the twelve stately arches, 
narrow and lofty, which give the long-drawn perspec¬ 
tive, which is so strikingly impressive in architecture, 
and is displayed at Winchester with almost overwhelm¬ 
ing sublimity. The equally long Norman naves of Ely, 
Pef erborough, Durham, &c. do not equal, in this re¬ 
spect, the aspiring sharply-pointed arcades at Winches¬ 
ter. The panelling of the walls, also, continuing the 
design from the vaulting to the plinth, or bench-table, 
unites the whole into one perfect design. The proper 
way to view this splendid nave is, not to look at it from 
the west end, under the great window, as most persons 
do ; for here the effect is injured by the massiveness of 
the piers, shutting out the side aisles, when combined 
together so nearly in the line of vision, thus forming 
little else than an ornamented wall of shafts and per¬ 
pendicular mouldings ; but by walking up or down the 
side aisles (from east to west is the better direction, as 
then the great west window comes in at the close,) 
keeping the eye towards the nave. In this manner of 
viewing it, the genius of Wykeham appears in all its 
grandeur. The piers, and arches, and windows of the 
noble fabric come in, one after another, sweeping before 


ADDENDA. 


93 


the eye of the advancing spectator like some gigantic 
procession. The series appears almost interminable. 
The effect, on a spectator of taste and feeling, is abso¬ 
lutely overpowering. He is overwhelmed by sensations 
of wonder and admiration produced by this scene of 
architectural splendour. I have even known the tear to 
start to the eye of such an one, and dim for a while the 
gorgeous vision before him. I know nothing equal to 
it, but, perhaps, the interior of the dome of St. Paul’s, 
as we advance slowly towards it, and leisurely contem¬ 
plate its gradually expanding immensity and height. 
Even the towering nave of Westminster, when viewed 
in an oblique direction, as I have now" recommended for 
Winchester, fails to produce the same effect. Its more 
graceful, because slenderer, columns allow too much to 
be seen at once ; and thus leave less for the imagination 
to conjure up. Perhaps it is the same with the glorious 
Minster of York, which has but seven arches (but what 
arches!) in the nave. I doubt whether these, with all 
their unrivalled majesty, produce the long perspective, 
of which Winchester, the Palmyra of English architec¬ 
ture, is so admirable a specimen. 


DESTRUCTION OF THE PALACE. 

/ 

Page 76. 

Perhaps the w"ork of complete demolition may not be 
traced exclusively to the rebel fanatics, who began it. 
Let them have their full share of the ignominy and dis¬ 
grace of this act of republican tyranny and sectarian 
violence; they well deserv^e it. But “ let every one bear 


94 


ADDENDA. 


his own burden,” and no more. It is to be feared that 
the cupidity of the inhabitants, and the bad taste, and 
utter want of all feeling of veneration and esteem for 
the remains of antiquity, which distinguished the last 
century, contributed not a little to the utter ruin of the 
venerable fabric. Milner complains that in his time the 
remains of Wolvesey were furnishing materials to mend 
the roads. It is not improbable that the ruins of Walt¬ 
ham Palace may have been applied to the same ignoble 
purpose. I think I have heard in my youthful days (and 
youthful impressions relating to interesting and en¬ 
deared objects are not easily effaced) of the spoliation 
of the Palace for the purpose of making “the high-raised 
flinty road” through the Forest; and I remember to 
have often remarked a piece of free-stone imbedded in it, 
not far from where it enters “the Chase.” The angles 
of the walls are all plundered of their corner stones or 
ashlar; and I w'ell recollect workmen talking of “going 
to the old buildings to get a stone,” whenever one W'as 
wanted: we may, indeed, trace this spoliation, even at 
the present day, in various parts of the town. We re¬ 
joice that a better spirit now prevails, and that the pre¬ 
servation of the interesting monuments of antiquity is 
considered as much the duty of their possessors, as it is 
creditable to their improved taste and feeling. 

THE PARK. 

Page 77. 

Grose, speaking of Farnham Castle, (Antiq. vol. v. 
p. 90,) says that Morley raised part of the funds with 
which he rebuilt Farnham Castle, built the new palace 




ADDENDA. 


95 


at Wolvesey, and purchased the late town residence of 
the bishop at Chelsea, “by leasing out the park at Walt¬ 
ham.” He gave, however, as Grose says, most liberally 
to these purposes out of his owm private fortune. 


THE STEW-PONDS. 

Page 80. 

The present meadows, to the south of the dam form¬ 
ing the great pond, on which the road now runs, were 
once occupied by the stew-ponds belonging to the Palace. 
An embankment, running parallel to the former one, 
and proceeding from the south-west angle of the antient 
wall inclosing the garden, (as we presume) marks the 
limit of this second and lower sheet of water. It has 
been cut through, where now the little stream runs, to 
pursue its course towards the sea, evidently for the pur¬ 
pose of drawing off the water of the ponds. 

Nor were these appendages of the Palace intended 
merely to furnish its inhabitants with the dainties of the 
table, as such are often invidiously represented to have 
been. They were, in former times, necessary appendages. 
The fasts of the Church, before the Reformation, were 
frequent, and they w^ere far more strictly observed (as 
they are now' by the members of the Church of Rome) 
than are the enjoined, but almost entirely neglected fasts 
of the Reformed Church of England. If we were as 
conscientious in observing what the Church equally en¬ 
joins at the present time, according to the teaching and 
practice of her Great Head (though she does not now 
enjoin it so frequently) we, too, should look on the fish 


96 


ADDENDA. 


pond as a not unnecessary accompaniment of tlie man¬ 
sion. But if the fasts of the Palace of Waltham, or 
those of any other mansion, ecclesiastical or lay, were 
of the description of that recorded by Gilpin, in his 
Southern tour, in which he partook, at Arundel Castle, 
with the hospitable priest there, whose invitation “to 
fast on mullets” he accepted, “anddeliciously,” 
we may doubt whether the ordinance may not be as 
much “honoured in the breach as in the observance ;” 
and whether the question may not be put, “Zs this the 
fast that I have chosen?” Such fasting savours little, it 
must be confessed, of mortifying the flesh; more of the 
outward form and superstitious observances which men, 
every where and in all ages, are too apt to put in the 
place of true and vital godliness. The Homily of the 
Church of England, “ on Fasting,” puts the subject in its 
true light, and enjoins the practice on its true principles. 

The little stream which feeds the pond, having been 
joined by another branch, the mill stream, forms a re¬ 
spectable river below Botley, where it becomes navigable 
and tidal. It pursues its course to the Southampton 
estuary, into which it falls at Hamble, after exhibiting in 
its course scenes of considerable svlvan beauty. 


LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS. 




The Right Rev. the Bishop of Winchester—five copies 

The Rev. the Warden of New College, Oxford—four 
copies 

The Rev. the Warden of Winchester College 
The Rev. the Head Master of Winchester College 
The Rev. the Second Master of Winchester College 
The Principal of Magdalen Hall, Oxford—two copies 
The Rev. the Vice-Principal of Magdalen Hall, Oxford— 
two copies 

Allen, Rev. W. b.a. Bishop’s Waltham—two copies 
Atkins, Mrs. 

Attwood, Mr. W, H. Stockbridge 
Austin, Mrs. Bishop’s Waltham 

Barfoot, P. Esq. Middlington, Droxford—two copies 

Barter, Miss, Bishop’s Waltham—two copies 

Battershell, Miss, Bishop’s Waltham 

Bayley, Ven. Archdeacon,’ d.d. Westmeon Rectory 

Baynes, Miss, Bishop’s Waltham 

Bloxam, Rev. J. R. b.d. Magdalen College, Oxford 

Birney, G. R. B. Esq. 

Bishop, Rev. A. m.a. Tichborne 

Bishop’s Waltham Literary Institution—two copies 

Bond, Mrs. Bishop’s Waltham 



SUBSCRIBERS. 


Mitchell, Rev. M. m.a. —two copies 
MondeV, Mr. Titchfield 
Moody, Mr. J. Alresford 

Morgan, T. Esq. Bishop’s Waltham—four copies 
Nation, Dr. 

Nation, Mr. Church Oakley 

Newman, Rev. J. H. b.d. Oriel College, Oxford 

Ogle, Rev. J. S. m.a. New College, Oxford 
Oliver, G. C. Esq. Bramdean 

Padbury, Mr. Bishop’s Waltham 

Palmer, Rev. W. m.a. Magdalen College, Oxford 

Palmer, R. Esq. m.a. ditto 

Pratt, Mr. George, Portsea 

Randall, Rev. James, m.a. Binfield, Berks 
Reeves, Rev. J. W. Somborne 
Reeves, Mr. Droxford- 

Rivers, Rev. Sir H. Bart. Martyr Worthy—two copies 
Rogers, G. V. Esq., Westmeon 
Rogers, Mr. Winchester 
Rogers, Mrs. Droxford 

Scal’d, Rev. T. m.a. Bishop’s Waltham—four copies 

Scal’d, Miss, ditto 

Sharland, Mr. Southampton 

Shearer, B. P. Esq. Sw'anmore—four copies 

Stares, G. H. Esq. Bishop’s Waltham—two copies 

Stebbing, Mr. Southampton 

Taylor, John, Esq. London 

Tichborne, R. Esq. Bishop’s Sutton 

Tonchet, the Misses, Westmeon—three copies 


SUBSCRIBERS. 


Veck, Rev. H. A. M.A. Forton, Gosport—four copies 

Walters, Rev. C. jun. m.a. Corliampton—four copies 
Walters, C. Esq. Bognor—four copies 
Warner, James, Esq. Botley—six copies 
Webb, Mrs. 

Wells, Mr. W. Botley 

West, Miss 

Whale, Mr. Durley 

White, Rev. T. P. m.a. Winchester 

Wickham, Rev. R. m.a. Twyford 

Wilberforce, Ven. Archdeacon, S. m.a. Alverstoke—two 
copies 

Winchester Mechanics Institution—two copies 
Winter, Mr. B. W. 

Woodman, Mr. Winchester 


Zillwood, Rev. I. O. m.a. Compton 


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